


Taken (a young justice/ Batman/ Nico di Angelo FF)

by Ruler_of_the_Night



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 33,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23639557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruler_of_the_Night/pseuds/Ruler_of_the_Night
Summary: After finding happiness in Camp Half-blood, Nico di Angelo is once again ripped out of his old life.This Time, he finds himself in Gotham City, the most dangerous City in the US, without any advice or note by the Gods.In Gotham, he is taken in by billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, who rarly has any time for him or his 3 other children, yet Nico still likes it there.But as he spends more and more Time in the Mansion, he starts to get suspicious. Why is no one in the Mannor in the Middle of the Night? How come Nico gets Nightmares about the City's hero's dying, although he didn't even meet all of them?The World's greatest defective on the other Hand also doesn't trust his new Ward. How come he doesn't know anything about the culture of the last few years? Why doesn't he talk about his past? Why does Nico have so may scars?
Relationships: Artemis Crock/Wally West, Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson, Bart Allen/Jaime Reyes, Kon-El | Conner Kent/M'gann M'orzz, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, Thalia Grace/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano
Comments: 18
Kudos: 120





	1. Chapter One• Waking up

**Author's Note:**

> This was Originally Planned as a young Justice Fan Fiction but turned more in a Batman one. The Team will defnetly show up, but I don't know how big their part will be.  
> (After Season 2: the Mountain got rebuild and Dick returned after 7 Months)

Batman was on the top of the Waynetech building, together with Robin. The night was unusual silent and neither Batman nor Robin trusted the silence. Agent A had suggested they'd come home early and Batman was considering they'd do so, as something unusual happened.  
The street light where getting darker, some even turned off. The Park close to the City centre was especially effected by this, as it now was the darkest point in the City.  
"Robin, we will see what is going oining on down there. ", Batman ordered an they both went on their way.  
But the weirdness wasn't over: all of a sudden, there where particles of light floating around, forming a big, bright ball of light. Just before the dynamic duo landed, the ball of Light exploded, revealing the corpse of a young boy. Or at least, the boy looked like a he was dead, when in reality, he was struggling to stay alive. Of cause Batman immediately called an Ambulance, which should take care of the young Boy. Little did he know the trouble the boy was going to bring with him.

A few months had passed and the press had lost all interest in the strange case. The boy was in a coma and all though he was getting better, the doctors pedikted it would at least take another year for him to fully recover.  
Bruce Wayne visited the boy frequently, and so did Batman. Sometimes the police would show up, in order to find out his identity, and leave without success. People where discussing where to put the boy, when Tim Drake came up with the idea, that the boy could be a metahuman. He could have just discovered his powers and overused them. He could have any ethnicity, be from any place in the world, they simply had to wait for him to wake up. And he did.  
After 9 months of waiting, Bruce Wayne got a message, saying the boy woke up.

Nico felt weaker than he ever did in his entire live, including that time when he was trapped in a jar. His Limps felt dull and it was hard to move them. Nico wasn't wearing his clothes and he did not want to know who undressed him. Unless it was Will.  
Wait, Nico thought.  
Where is Will? He sneaked over to my room yesterday, so what happened to Will?  
The 14 year old wanted to ask for his boyfriend, but for some reason, his voice was to weak to talk out loud. The son of Hades heard an unfamiliar Voice, a door opening and foot steps conning towards him.  
A female Voice started to talk to him and for some reason, he was unable to process some of those words. The boy tired to open his eyes, which worked with effort and regreted it as soon as he did.  
Nico's surrounding clearly wasn't his Cabin, and due to the amount of light and the bright colours, for a second he believed je was in the Apollo Cabin. Then there was this unfamiliar female Face and Nico knew he wasn't in the Apollo Cabin either.  
"If you can hear me, blink twice.", the woman said. Her eyes looked like they couldn't decide what colour they where. Her hair was almost as blonde as Will's and if he was 1% straight, he would be crushing on her, he thought.  
"Okay, good.", the woman said and wrote something down. "I am Doctor Alice Solace. If we-" Nico stopped listening. This woman had the same last name and hair as Will and she was a Doctor. Could this be..?  
No!, he stopped his thought before they got to bad. This could be... his sister. Yes, this is his Sister.  
He tried to say his boyfriends Name, but all he said was "Wh.. Bwe... We... Bwell"  
The doctor looked at him as if she was trying to figure out, what he had just told her.  
"Is your Name Will?", she asked. Nico wanted to tell her she was wrong and wanted to tell her his real name, but he fealt the exhaustion.  
"Look, Will, you've got to tell me where your Parents are, so we know if you have an insurance or not.", the woman continued to talk, but Nico stopped to listen. His backpack was nowhere near him, so he couldn't even eat some ambrosia. He fealt the exhaustion and all though he didn't want to, he fell asleep again. 

After 16 Hours, Nico woke up again, only to find a middle-aged man in expensive clothes and a roughly 10 year old boy arguing. The boy was all so dressed in expensive clothing, his clothes just didn't look expensive.  
"Father!", the boy said. "You cannot be serious!"  
"Yes, Damian, for the 37th time. I am serious about this. If he-", the man turned towards Nico and catches his eye.  
"You're awake.", the man said.  
"You've slept quite the while. You've been I a coma for 9 months.", the man stated, but was interrupted by Nico.  
"So...", Nick's Voice cracked and he had to drink some water before he could continue to talk. "Where in Hades am I?" They both didn't seem surprised by this question, and the man gave an answer straight away.  
"You are in Gotham city."  
Nico's thought started to hurt, but he needed his answers.  
"The City with these rich people..?"  
"You mean with Bruce Wayne?"  
"No, with...", he snapped his Finger as if he was trying to remember something, then he said. "Thomas and Martha."  
They both looked shocked, but in different ways. The man looked as if he just remembered a bad memory and the boy looked shocked, as if he couldn't believe Nico dared to say these names.  
Another person Nico hadn't noticed jet started to talk.  
"What Bruce was trying to say before you reminded him of the murder of his parents is, that new year's eve will be in 2 Weeks."  
The boy looked good, had raven hair and dark brown eyes, almost as dark as Nico's.  
The son of Hades had several questions floating around in his mind, about the new boy and how he got here, if this Bruce guy was actually Bruce Wayne, and what in Hades had happened to his parents. However, "So it will be 2014?" was the first question he said out loud.  
His Visitors both looked irritated, then the younger boy answered.  
"No, It will be 2066." There was a spark of arrogance in his Voice even now. Nico noticed it and it reminded him of the Aphrodite cabin in camp.  
"Alright.", he replied, with an extra long A.  
He looked around, trying to find something wrong in the room, some mistake proving his all was fake, yet he couldn't.  
"Okay Conner! You got me!", he clapped his hands. "Good one! You can tell Lou Ellen to stop now!" He waited for a reaction, for the room to disappear and the people to turn into the Hermes Kids. Needles to say, the reality did not meet his expectations.  
The man looked at him as if he tried to figure something out, the 2nd boy looked like he had just found a conclusion out and the first one just looked confused.  
"You're not from here. You're from somewhere else and you are used to people tricking you, so much that you do not believe this is the reality. Apparently you are also from a different time, due to you asking if the year was 2014. If you'd be so kind as to tell us your Name, we'd tell you our Names."  
Nico didn't like the Idea of telling some strangers his Name, but he couldn't think of any negative reaction to his name and he wasn't creative enough to give himself a Name better than "John Smith"  
"Ni-", the boy coughed, then he continued to talk. "Nico di Angelo. My Name is Nico di Angelo."  
Now all of them looked at him with scepsis in their eyes. The youngest was the first to raise his Voice.  
"Well, I am Damian Wayne. This here is my Father Bruce Wayne and this is my adopted brother Timothy Drake." He then muttered something underneath his breath, "مجنون" was the only word Nico could actually hear. The 14 year old wanted to defend himself, wanted to tell this Damian person he wasn't insane or crazy, but all of a sudden, he was extemly exhausted. He managed to say "I need my stuff to-", then he collapsed.


	2. Chapter two• Meeting the Boys

It took Nico another Week before he could leave the hospital. While the Doctors were clueless on how he recovered so fast, Nico was clueless on why it took the ambrosia so long to heal him properly.  
"So, I guess you still remember me from the hospital, but just in case you don't: I am Bruce Wayne.", the man who came to pick Nico up stated. Nico nodded. Because of Nico being bored out of his mind and regularly leaving his bed all though he's not supposed to, the nurses decided they didn't have to run any further tests on him, since they knew he was fine.  
"My Butler and friend Alfred and the boys are at home. I hope it doesn't bother you to live with 3 other boys. Also, there is Alfred the Cat and Titus the dog."  
"Living with 3 other boys won't be a problem. And since I am not allergic, the same goes for the animals."  
The two of them walked out of the hospital, towards the parking space, while talking.  
"Which brings me to my next question. Any allergies, of disorders I should know about?"  
"ADHD and Dyslexia." And anxiety, PTSD, a bit of depression, y'know., he thought, but then he would have to explain, and that would inevitably make him tell Bruce he's a Demigod and was none of Bruce's business.

As they parked at Wayne Mannor, Buce looked at Nico so he could see his reaction.  
Dick and Jason both were overwhelmed when they first saw the manner, and Bruce expected a similar reaction from Nico.  
And while Nico was impressed, after all it was the biggest house for a mortal to live in he had ever seen, but he had seen mount Olympus and the palace of Hades, so he wasn't overwhelmed.  
They got out of the car, and started to walk towards the door, when Bruce started to talk again.  
"Now, before we get in here, I wanted to let you know, that while the three of them are all good kids and all mean well, most of the times, it can get chaotic. They aren't related, at least not by blood, and they all came into my life at a different Time. And while Damien, the youngest, technically is my biological son it does get more complicated than that.  
Some of them are better at expressing their emotions then others. I am pretty sure they will like you, once they get to know you, and the other way around, but until then don't beat yourself up, if they are a bit distant." Bruce took a deep breath, then looked down at Nico.  
"Ready?"  
"I guess so. Also, thanks for waring me beforehand." Nico knew that kind of relationship. He kind of had it with Thalia, being kind of related, meaning well for the other one but being bad at telling the other one so.  
Bruce then proceded to ring the doorbell and an old man opened the door almost immediately.  
"Hi Alfred, are the boys sorted?"  
"Yes Master Bruce, I made sure of that.", the old man anwered, then he looked at Nico. "Is this the boy you where talking about?"  
Bruce nodded, as he took of his coat.  
"I'm Nico.", the son of Hades said without being asked. Alfred took Bruce's Jacked and offered to take Nico's, but Nico declined.  
"This way.", Bruce said, and both Alfred and Nico followed him.

The room they entered was a huge room, with a TV, a speaker in each corner, a projector on the roof, something else on the roof that Nico didn't know, a Couch and a Coffee table, wich had several Coffemugs on them. There where 3 People on the couch, the one was about 20, the next one about 16, and the youngest one was maybe 11. They all had black hair and blue eyes, but the youngest one looked more like Bruce than the other two. Nico was pretty sure, that that was the Damien Bruce had mentioned earlier.  
As they saw the 3 People arrive they all reacted differently: the oldest one summersalted towards them for no apparent reason, the teenager put down his Coffemugs and stood up slowly, and the youngest one stood up immerdiaty and the was very stiff in his movements.  
"Nico these are Dick-" Dick smiled and looked generally very happy to see him, "-Tim-", Tim looked tired, like he hadn't sleep properly in 5 days but he still smiled. "- and Damien." Damien was the only one who didn't seem happy to see him. He crossed his arms and muttered something, and immediately got hit by Tim.  
"Be nice Damien!", he said and looked at Nico, as if he was trying to excuse his brother's manners.  
"How old are you, Nico?"  
"I'm 15 I think."  
"I am going to leave you guys alone while I talk thinks over with Alfred about your Room."  
Tim rolled his eyes and Dick said, it would be no problem.  
As soon as Bruce left the room, all 3 of them started to ask him questions.  
"Where are you from?", Tim asked, "I mean you have some sort of european accent."  
"Oh, my Mother moved here when I was 10.", Nico purposely didn't include Bianca, since Bianca was none of their business.  
"I'm from Venice in Italy."  
"Do you speak Italian?" Was Dick's question.  
"Yea."  
"Nice, me too.", Dick said with a smile, and then told Nico, his Cow was made of pastry.  
Nico cracked up a smile, but didn't bother to correct Dick.  
"Want to sit down?" Tim pointed at the couch and Nico nodded.  
"How 'bout this: we ask some questions. If you don't wanna tell us the answer, tell us.", Dick suggested as they all sat down.  
"Yea, why not?", Nico replied.  
"What is your favourite colour?", Dick asked and got a seriously? look from Damian.  
"Black."  
"Favourite Game?", Tim asked.  
"Monopoly and Mytho-magic." Nico had gotten one when his family moved to America. He loved it and won almost every time. Of cause Caputre the flag in there too, but the other two games were more important to him.  
"What's the story with your family?", Damien asked and imminently got glared at by his brothers.  
"Skip."  
"Favorite childhood memory?", Dick asked. He had one, but it wouldn't seem very happy to the others.  
"My 10th Birthday.", Nico simply said.  
"Why?", Tim asked.  
Hades, Bianca and his Mother were together, being happy and just talking about normal things, while Nico was super happy about his presents. Italy had just switched sides in the war, and Hades was talking to Maria how great it would be if they moved to America.  
"Skip."  
"What's the story behind the way you got to gotham?", Damien asked.  
"I honestly don't really know."  
"What does that mean?", the youngest asked.  
"Damien! You are only allowed to ask one question. Wait your turn. Also, we don't ask question like that. If he doesn't know, he doesn't know.", Tim said annoyed.  
"What is your Favorite Food?"  
"The birthdaycake that my friend's mother makes."  
Nico heard Daian say "لديك أصدقاء؟", looked at him and said:  
"Of cause I have friends. You don't?"  
"You speak Arabian?", Damien asked surprised.  
"Je parle beacoup des Langues.", Nico replied with a smirk.  
"How come you speak so many Languages?", Tim asked.  
"Has something to do with my Father and...", Nico couldn't really say that the dead didn't all speak English so he was forced to learn more languages in order to understand the jujings he sometimes attended, so he just made something up as he went along. "...and the Visitors he gets. They don't all speak English and you'd tart to pick things up as you go along."  
"What kind of Visitors are they?", Tim asked.  
"Pass."  
The tree boys keep on asking questions and while Dick and Tim wanted to get to know their new brother, Damien wanted to know his secrets. And any time Nico opened up a bit, he closed down again as soon as he noticed. The conversation slowly got more and more awkward, so all of them were relived, when Alfred told them, it was Dinnertime.


	3. Chapter three• A tour around the house and a meeting in the Batcave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bruce is 46  
> Dick is 23  
> Barbara is 25  
> Jason is 19  
> Tim is 16  
> Damian is 12

Alfred cooked spaghetti bolognese for dinner and everyone reslly enjoyed it. Damian, who had a discussion with Alfred if Titus was allowed at the table or not (Alfred won), ate a vegetarian alternative and gave everyone a bad look for eating dead animals.  
"So, Tim and Dick, didn't you say you wanted to give Nico a tour around the house?", Bruce asked.  
"Well, yes but-", Tim flashed a glance at Nico, who was busy eating,"- I still have something to do about the Wayne Intern. I know, I said I'd do it this mornig, but it was more than I expected. Sorry Dick, but you'll have to do this on your own."  
Dick rolled his eyes. Everyone, including Nico, new Tim was feeling uncomfortable with the idea of him being alone with the son of Hades. 

"So, how about we Start upstairs and work our way down?", Dick suggested.  
"Sure, why not.", he answered and followed Dick upstairs. 

The tour was a long tour, after all, it was a big house. Nico now knew they had plenty of Rooms in the mansion, yet they still had their Bedrooms all in one corridor.  
"So we don't feel lonely in this big house.",Dick had explained. They had a really big gym and a smaller one, 4 living rooms and one room, that felt like a cinema. The house had a few secret passages, which Dick showed to Nico, one really big Library, a room big enough to throw a ball, witch they used it for galas and stuff like that. They talked a lot about their private lives, and Nico found out, that Dick also loves to play capture the flag, that he lived in a circus for the first 8 years of his live and that his parents died. Nico told him about Camp and Will, his friendship with Reyna and his other friends, but he didn't talk about Will as his Boyfriend, he talked about Will as a friend, a very good one. 

During the tour, they ran into a black cat. Dick went down, held his hand towards the cat and went "pspsps". The cat went towards Dick, who picked it up and told Nico with a smile: "That is Alfred the cat. It belongs to Damian, but he basically likes everyone." Nico carefully tried to pet it, but Alfred hissed at him and went, scratched his hand and jumped out of his arms.  
"Oh, sorry, he doesn't usually do that...", Dick said.  
"It's okay, I don't really like cats anyways.",Nico said. 

At the end of the day, the tour went 2 and a half hours. Nico wasn't very exhausted, he had done thing way more exhausting in the wars, but a normal person would be exhausted, so he told Dick he was. 

"What the hell, Bruce?", Tim yelled as Red Robin. He, Batman, Nightwing and Robin were in the Batcave.  
"You know what my Plan is, we have talked it over several Times. What exactly is your problem?", Batman told him.  
"He creeps me out!", Tim shouted.  
"I think he's nice. I mean he has secrets, but then look at us. Who are we to complain about this?",Dick told them.  
"Didn't you notice how the plats looked like they needed water after he was siting close to them in the living room? Or how Alfred the cat screatched his hand?", Tim asked Dick accusingly.  
"How did you.. never mind.",Dick was about to ask.  
"The nurses and doctors told me he had a ton of scars on him, some could easily be 4 or 5 years old. I think he was abused by his Patents or whoever took care of him.", Bruce told his sons.  
"That would explain why he blocked so many questions off.", Dick said.  
"He.. He reminds me off the feeling I had right before I was thrown into the Lazarus Pit. Back in the days when I still was trained by Mother.";Damian told them. He looked like it was hard for him to tell them, but when Dick wanted to hug him, he brushed him off. 

"So, Batman, why did you want us here? I though I wasn't allowed close to the manison.", a new Voice asked.  
"Jason, finally. Oh, you where so kind and brought Barbara with you.";Bruce told him. "Also, you know it would be very strange if a person publicly know as dead would just walk around the Mansion."  
"The news you wanted to tell us were..?"; Babara went.  
"Right, the news I had for you were the DNA tests."  
"So...?"  
"He has no genetic Father."; Bruce said. "From what I can see, he would be his mother, but he obviously isn't. Also, he has quirks in his DNA, hat stopped showing up since the 1950ies."  
"Do you think he could be a Timetraveler? Or a Speedster like Wally?", Dick asked.  
"Timetravel maybe. Speedster? No, he took to long to recover and the way he arrived was strange too."  
"I guess Tim will just have to ask Bart about him and if he mad a mayor appearance in history or not."  
"And the other news is..?"; Jason asked.  
"I have a lead on were Scarecrow is. I need a team of Barbara, Jason and Damian to follow that lead while Tim, Dick and I continue with our Investegation at Lexcorp.", Batman gave out his orders and the Batfamily started patrol for the night.


	4. A conversation with Damian

In the morning, Nico struggled to find his way to the kitchen. He had slept longer than usual, which he found confusing, since his dreams had gotten worse over the past few days. He was just gald he hadn't screamed when he woke up.  
Nico didn't find anyone in order to ask for the way, so he assumed the other servants were on their day off or just in an other part of the mansion.   
It was after 12 o'clock when he finally stumbled across someone. It was Damien, who for some reason was polishing a katana. Nico didn't know why someone would give an 11 year old a sword, but he was given one at that age too, so he wasn't too invested in it.   
Damien keep on polishing as Nico entered the Room, and when Nico coughed in order to announce himself, Damien flinched, stood up and pointed the tip of the Katana at Nico's through.  
When he realised, that it was just Nico and that this new Brother didn't plan on attacking him, he still didn't lower the Katana.  
"What do you want, D'Angelo?", he asked with derogatory.  
Nico'Zane's were ticking off. Everything in him screamed danger, everything in him wanted to attack Damian, but he managed to keep calm.  
"I want to know where the kitchen is."  
Damien lowered his sword, but still looked at him as if he didn't believe the 15 year old.  
"Also, it's Di Angelo."  
Damien pushed a button and then continued to polish his katana. He didn't seem to notice or care about the back haired boy's comment.   
Nico just stood in the room. Alfred the cat entered, hissed and left again. The son of Hades wasn't bothered by that. He wasn't in the mood for Smalltalk and he didn't get the impression Damien was either. He picked up a knife lying around, did a basic attach movement and layed it back down.  
"Your knife is out of balance.", He told the small boy.   
"That is why it's lying there. I've got to get-", the young Wayne was interrupted by an old British man with white hair.  
"Master Damien, you were calling for me?"  
"Pennyworth, bring Di Angelo to the kitchen."  
Alfred's eyes gazed at the pale 15 year old, who nodded with the hint of a smile on his face.  
"As you wish." 

"Do you wish for me to cook something for you Master Nico?"  
Nico lifted his eyebrows and looked towards the Bulter.  
"Don't you have cooks for that?", he asked carefully.   
"I am the only one who Is here on a daly basis.", Alfred informed politely. "We have people come to us like a gardener or a Taylor every Fortnight, but I take care of the house, the kitchen, the laundry and so on and so forth."   
Nico disliked the idea of one person taking care of the whole mansion by themselves. He genuently fealt sorry for the old British man, but he didn't know how to help him.  
"You don't need to cook for me, Alfred."  
"Is there anything else you want me to do?"   
"Can you tell me were Dick and Tim are?"  
Alfred continued to look neutral, but the demigod still found a hint of guilt underneath that mask. The butler was hiding something from him.  
"Out. Dick is in at Work. Tim is at Waynetech, doing some sort of internship."  
"You may go now.", the boy with black eyes told his butler. Alfred had almost reached the door, when Nico told him to wait one last time.  
"Alfred, what day of the Week is it?"  
"It's Wednesday."  
"Thank you."


	5. "Leave. Now."

Nico, who had just made himself a tomato mozzarella sandwich, went upstairs, and into his room.  
As he entered he saw Damian sitting on his desk chair with his black backpack on his knees, looking through his stuff.  
"What in Hades, Damian?"  
Damian flinched and took Nico's silver knife, a present he had gotten from Thalia after she went to camp to visit Percy and Annabeth, but ended up spending a lot of Time with Nico, since Percy and Annabeth were busy with school. The 15 year old could see his Hades Figurine next to Damian on his desk.  
"What is this for?", he asked accusing.  
"That's a knife I got as a present.", Nico said.  
"That doesn't answer my question."  
"It's for satanistic rituals. I sold my soul to Arabadon last year and now I have to do this weekly.", Nico explained.  
"Really?"  
"Of course not. Now get out of my stuff and out of my room you little shit.", Nico said angry.  
"Well, di Angelo, I go when I think I should go, you don't have any say in that."  
Nico went towards Damian, picked him up by his collar and looked him directly into the eyes.  
"Leave. Now."  
Nico let good him. The youngest Wayne stumbled when he hit the ground, but he didn't fall. Nico turned around, when he noticed Bruce standing in the door.  
"What is going on?", he asked.  
"Di Angelo threatened me."  
"No I didn't. He was looking through my stuff and I told him to leave."  
"You know what, nevermind.", Nico said. He was uncomfortable in this situation, he fealt like a cornered animal.  
He wanted to leave, but Bruce held him back.  
"We're not finished here."  
The skeleton warriors grabbed Nico. He refused to look at the Lord of the underworld, so they forced him to do so.  
"Now, Persephone sadly isn't here, or else another day as dandelion would do your respect some good." He shook his head bitterly and gave his son a disappointed look.  
"Your room will do it for today, but I am waring you son, not all gods are that calm when people are being disrespectful."  
Nico froze. His eyes widened, his mussels clenched and his breathing accelerated. When Bruce moved towards both of his children, Nico shruck away.  
The eyes of the pale boy rushed around, as if they were calculating chances in a fight.  
All of that happened in a matter of seconds, then Nico mumbled something, pushed Bruce aside, who wouldn't have fallen but played along, left the kitchen and started to run.  
"Hey-" he started to follow his new ward-" Nico, wait!"  
To the world's greatest defective it was obvious, that Nico had a déja vu with a situation, that didn't end well of him. He probably was scared Bruce would hurt him, but Bruce wasn't sure about that.  
"Please wait!", he shouted as he started to follow Nico.  
"Nico, I just want to talk."  
Nico slowed down and gave his new 'father' a sceptical look. 

"Damian, you don't just look through other people's stuff, and you know that."  
Damian shrugged his shoulders.  
"I don't want you doingthis again, or I will personally have you banned from all animal shelters in Gotham and every city in a 100 mile radius from Gotham."  
Damien's eyes widened.  
"Sorry.", the younger one recently said.  
"And Nico?"  
"Don't look through my stuff without asking the next time." Then he stood up and left.


	6. "Who is this Jason you're talking about?:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of habe a bit of write block right now, so I will be posting what I've pre-written and hope that when that runs out, I'll have overcome my block.

In the Afternoon, Alfred went to check in on Nico. He had some news for him and also was worried, since he hadn't seen the boy after the incident with Damien.  
"Master Nico?", he asked while knocking on the door. "May I come in?"  
Alfred heard the sound of something made of metal fall of the floor, a curse, an object probably the same being moved to another place and then a "Sure."  
"After Talking to Master Bruce over the phone, I have some news for you."  
Alfred started to talk about what Nico had to do this Week. Apparently, Nico had to get another check-in by a Doctor, they had to get clothes for him, they were going to sign him up at Gotham Academy, and each one of the boys wanted to spend some time with him to show him their hobbies.   
"Thanks for telling me, Alfred.", Nico said gratefully.   
Alfred was about to say something more, when he was inerulted by Nico.  
"I was just wondering, why do we need to get new clothes? There are tons in my closet."  
Nico was wearing a black hoodie, which was hanging off his slim body and the trousers he wore were way to big and barely stayed on his hip, even with the help of a belt.   
"Well, they don't seem to fit you, do they? Besides, these are Master Dick's and Master Jason's old clothes and Master Bruce and I think, you should get some of your own."  
"Alright.",He nodded and then went: "Wait, who is this Master Jason?"   
All of a sudden Alfred looked sad, like he remembered something he didn't want to remember.  
"Jason was a wonderful boy. When Master Bruce caught him stealing the tiers of his car, Jason was about the age of 12. Instead of taking Jason to the police, he took him in and took care of him. You must know, master Bruce and Dick don't always have a relationship this good, and back then, Dick wasn't living here anymore. So Jason also helped Bruce feel less lonely. Sadly the relationship they had was rocky, to say it nice. They had several falling outs, when Jason decided it was best for him to move out and find his own way."  
"You refer to him in past tense, what happened, Alfred?"  
"He went to Bialya, the place he through his mother was. His mother wasn't there, but there was a drunken driver, who ran him over.", Alfred smiled at him with sad eyes. Nico wasn't shocked, he had heared of people dealing with stuff that was way worse than that, but he knew what it was like to lose someone you loved.  
"Oh.", he said. "Thanks for telling me. You may go now."  
"Oh, actaly I came to collect you in order to go to the doctor. The appointment is in 30 Minutes."

"So, you're fully recovered, from whatever that was that brought you here, but you need to weigh more.", the doctor said after the check up was finished and Nico had been vaccinated again.   
Nico couldn't say he was surprised. He had anyways weighed below average, it was very critical after Tartarus, but thanks to Hazel and Will he had a good recovery. He didn't have the overall impression he was underweight, but apparently that was the case.   
"You will habe to make a few more appointments for the other vaccinations, and then we'll see."  
Bruce, who came when the tests were over already, nodded. He put a hand on Nico's shoulder in order to reassure him, but Nico flinched and went a few steps away.  
"Let's go home then.", Nico said who was clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation.

The rest of the day passed without further noticeable events. They came back, they ate, and had a lot of superficial conversations.   
Now, Nico was sitting at his desk. To him, it fealt like yesterday was a month ago, and the whole situation reminded him a bit of the time he and Bianca left the lotus hotel. Everything was so different, so loud and happening so fast, he didn't know how to feel about it. And now he was stuck, with a family he wasn't a part of, in a town he didn't know, in a time he didn't belong in.   
He still couldn't shadowtravel and with Bruce already being his legal guardian to 95% the situation took more and more of his breath. If everything continued like this, he could feel himself suffocate.


	7. "It was an accident, I swear!"

"Hey, Nico", Nico was asleep when he heared a distant voice say his Name and grab his shoulder. Of cause, his defence mechanism choped, which lead to him being full away immediately and punching towards the rough direction of the attacker's face.   
"Ow!"  
"Fuck!", Nico just realised the Voice was Tim's. He held his bloody nose and looked like he was in pain.   
"I'm sorry!", he said and wanted to give him some ambrosia, when he rembered Tim was fully mortal and would burn to a crisp if ate some.  
Tim pressed a button, right to Nico's door and the stumbled thoughts door left from the entrance, the bathroom.  
"I'm really sorry Tim", Nico said again, and then stood in thr doorway, not knowing what to do.  
All of a sudden, Alfred was in his room and took care of the bleeding nose. Nico didn't know, how he got there, but in that Moment it didn't matter.  
"What have you two been up to?", Alfred asked accusingly.  
"Nothing, it was an accident, I swear!", Nico said. His posture tensed up and he looked down, like he was waiting to be punished in some way. The shadows got longer, the light started to flicker and Nico was about to run away, when he heard someone complementing his punch. It was Bruce.  
"Who taught you?", he asked in a interested way.  
"Mr Brunner from my Summer camp.", Nico said, clearly confused.   
"Why does that-", he wanted to ask but was interrupted by Bruce.  
"Took Tim 4 Months to learn to punch this good. You should be proud of yourself."  
Nico nodded slowly and looked back to Tim and Alfred.  
"Don't worry.", He heard Tim say. "I've dealt with worse."   
"I've dealt with Damian.", was the elaboration no one asked for, but Nico desperately needed.   
"What is going on here Father?", Damian asked, who now stood in the doorway, a tall dog next to him. Nico wasn't sure what race the dog was but he looked a lot like a German Shepard.  
"Master Nico broke Master Tim's nose."  
Damian said nothing, but from the smirk on his face, Nico could tell Damian liked that.  
"Anyways, Nico I came to discuss some stuff with you before I have to go and work again, can we-"  
"Oh sure." Nico, who fell asleep on his desk, just decided to keep his clothes on, since the hoodie he wore had his enchanted dagger, a dragma and a small peace of ambrosia in it's pocket, in case of emergencies.  
"Where were you planning on going to?", Nico asked.  
"Oh, to my Office here. Just, follow me."

"So, Nico, there is a thing at the adoption centre. You are not adopted and also you're not my official ward. This is not because we don't want you, it's just you don't seen to be registered and also there are a lot of villains the Batman fights which for some reason have something against us, so this is also an attempt to keep you save. At school, you will be one of the Wayne scholarship kids, until we got everything sorted, and if anyone asks you were you're from, I'd say you say you're from the orphanage, but that is up to you. If they ask you about the big explosion in which you came here you tell them that you got caught in a fight between Zantanna and Wotan, they'll believe you.", Bruce stated. Nico knew this question was inevitable, so he wasn't surprised it came up.  
"Do you know why you're here?", Bruce asked. Nico noticed something in Buce shift, he fealt like he was scanned and every move of him got analysed.  
"As I said, I don't."  
"Er, Bruce, I Also wanted to talk to you about something.", Nico carefully said.  
"Oh, sure."  
"I want to see my father.", Nico looked Bruce into the eyes, since he wanted Bruce to know he was serious, despite how absurd it must have sounded.  
"I know where he is and how to find him."  
"You're telling me, your father is alive and didn't bother to check in on you in the 9 months you were in a coma?", Bruce rose his voice. He sounded angry and Nico flinched. He broke the eye contact and looked down at the floor, while he started to play with his skull ring.  
"I-I'm sorry, that was a stupid thing to ask.", he admitted, while still looking on the floor.  
"Oh no, that wasn't stupid, not at all, Nico. Just tell me where he lives and why his Name is and We can visit him together.", Bruce still sounded angry, but he managed to cover that up better.  
"Bruce you don't understand, it doesn't-", then there was a sharp pain in his head.   
And then Nico di Angelo heared nothing but silence and his father's Voice.


	8. A word with Hades and an invitation

'Son', Hades Voice spoke.  
'Hello father.', Nico greeted him.   
'You can't risk any further exposure of our world. Certain Amazons have been doing a good job at that. I have a plan for all of this to work out, trust me. For now, all you need to know, is that my name is Hayden di Angelo and that I live in 221b in the Rosealley in Central City.'  
'Did you ever consider, that I don't want to follow your stupid plan? What if I had enough of you gods, especially after you took me away from my friends and my sister. After you took me away from Will!'  
'Nico, now is not the Time to discuss this. We will speak again in your dream. This plan is for your own safety, it would be the best for all of us, if you followed.'  
Nico wanted to refuse. He wanted to scream at his father for taking him away again, he,wanted to get mad, he wanted his father to feel his anger. But something was off with the god, he hadn't sounded like he used to like a strange recording.   
Hades' presence went out of Nico's head and the son of Hades wasn't happy with the ending.

Nico started to hear different things again. When he opened his eyes, he realised he was lying on the floor, sourounded by Bruce, Alfred and a panicking Dick.  
"What happened?", Nico asked. He heard a voice he couldn't connect to anyone saing, he should have stayed in the hospital longer.  
"You suddenly looked even more pale-", Bruce said and was enteruped by Alfred.  
"Hard to image that isn't it?"  
"-and then you fell down the chair. You've been unconscious for almost 5 Minutes now."  
"I was about to call an ambulance, but here you are again."  
"It's okay, I'm fine.", Nico told everyone. He fealt uncomfortable, since he hand the wall in his back and three very much strangers confront of him.  
"Are you sure? Being unconscious this long usually isn't a good sign.", Bruce asked.   
"Yea, yea. I used to have anemia and this happened all the time.", Nico didn't know we're he knew that from, but he was certain it was true.  
"The doctor tested me the last time when I was 11, and they then said I had outgrown it."  
"I think you should lie down for a while. Master Dick, if you were so kind to bring him upstairs, then I can rescue my biscuits from burning and Nico can get some of them.", Alfred suggested with a smile.

"You are a very lucky person, y'know? Alfred only let's you have cookies before tea when something like this happens. Of cause I don't want anaemia, but you wouldn't mind if I stole one of your cookies, would you?", Dick said as he put a blanket over Nico.   
"Go ahead.", Nico told him.  
He took one of the cookies from the tablet, gave Nick another one and they just sat there for a while, eating cookies.   
"Oh, Nico, Me and Tim are going to watch a few horror movies on Friday. My Girlfriend Barbara will be there, and so will our Friends Artemis and Roy. You are welcome to join us, if you want to."  
Nico smiled and nodded.  
"Sounds nice, I'll be there."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys for the short chapter and for the long waiting time. I'll try to do both better with the next chapter.


	9. The day with Dick

"So, Nico, do you know what we have here?", Dick asked pointing around the gym. Dick and the Wayne children wanted to show the newest one their hobbies, and Dick bring the oldest one started.  
"Tourchure devices if you ask me.",Nico answered.   
"Okay so this is a trapeze, the thing I am the most familiar with. These are normal gymnast rings...", Dick went on to explain the things in the big gym and what they were used for, if they were ever used.  
"Do you have any experience or something along those lines?", he asked.  
"I can do a backflip.", Nico told Dick and demonstrated, with the help of a wall.   
"Nice."  
"Also, I am very good at rock climbing."  
"Well, we don't exactly have a rock in out back yard or a boulder hall in the mannor, but that sounds like fun."  
"Yeah, it is. But it never was my favourite sport anyways."  
After straying away from the subjects of acrobatics all together, Dick smoothly drifted the conversation back to where he wanted it to be. Dick then took time to explain The theories behind a simple trick on the trapeze, before he showed Nico. It was obvious they were for beginners, since the trapeze wasn't even supposed to move when making most of them.

Nico started by hanging off the trapeze, then he used it as swing. As the trapeze got slower, he did the first trick Dick showed him: hanging off the trapeze upside down, like a bat.  
As Nico got better and mastered the basic trick, Dick showed him a harder more advanced one. Nico failed and fell more than one time, but he got up and tryed again.  
"The tick here is the arm, see it?", Dick said and put Nico's arm in the right position.  
Of cause the son of Hades wasn't suddenly a master in acrobatics, but Dick said he didn't look like a total beginner anymore.

After Dinner, Nico was send to shower and then to go to sleep, since it had gotten late with Dick.  
In his room, Nico discovered what was being the doors in his room. He had been curious before, but he didn't have the chance to check them out yet.   
The one door was very close to the door to the hallway. There was a bathroom inside, with a strange looking shower, a toilet and a sink.  
The other room however had a couch, a TV, another desk witch had a pc on. He saw something that reminded him of the game console he sometimes saw in a display window. Next to the TV, there were a bunch of different controllers in all sorts of colours.   
The son of Hades took what he thought was a TV remote.   
"And now to the usual wanted criminals. If anyone knows were Riddler, Joker, Scarecrow or Clayface is, ring this number."  
Nico switched chanals. This world was confusing enough as it was, he didn't need to watch the news and wonder why they didn't call them by their real names.  
The next channel showed a romantic comedy, which Nico skipped after five minutes while saying "ugh straight people."  
He eventually came to the conclusion there was nothing good on in the TV and went to bed.

After a few hours of Demigod dreams, Nico woke up. Hades had told him the plan and while Nico strongly disagreed about a lot, he knew he still would follow it as good as he could.   
"So my father's name is Hayden, he was neglecting and sometimes abusive, I ran away with my sister when I was 10, she drowned and we never found her body, that is why I am afraid of water.", Nico went through his backstory in his head. Hades didn't feel the need to cover up a fear of heights, since a lot of humans had that anyway. And since Airplanes weren't used since the 2040ies, he would be in big danger of Zeus. Nico wasn't sure if he could remember all of his backstory, but as long as his story stayed consistent, he could get away with it.   
Too bad for Nico, that he lived in a household with the two best detectives in the world, which already had a suspicion something wasn't right with him.


	10. "Hey Tim, are you alright?"

"Hey there!", Tim greeted Nico with a smile on his face. The smile wasn't real, he was too tired for that, but he still wanted to make gesture.  
"Hi.", Nico said and closed the door behind him.   
"So, what do you want to show me?", Nico asked.  
Tim smirked, this time it was real, and told Nico to sit down next to him.  
"I am going to show you the wonderful world of computers."  
Tim then went on to explain the importance of the different computer parts, which Nico didn't acutely understand, but he still thought it sounded interesting. He mentally renamed everyone of the parts to one of his Friends names, depending on how similar the computerpart's role in the system was to his Friends Roles in the Camp. He ended up having several Wills and more that 2 Annabeths, but he could live with that. Tim sometimes dropped words Nico actually knew like CPU or Graphic card, but apart from that he mainly referred to the part as to his Friends Names.   
While Tim though of it as very confusing at first, he realised Nico could understand what he was trying to say better if he just went with it, so Tim said sentences like "So the Rachel depends on the Angus, but also on the Mr D, and to bypass an overload on Rachel's side, there is a Leo regulating the flow."   
He thought that sounded studio, but he wanted to make it as easy for Nico as possible. Tim just hoped Jason would somehow find out about that and tease him with it.

"Now, I know you may be not very good with their real names", Tim started to say, "but I've got some spare parts from my older machines, and I thought we could build a pc together?"  
Nico knew how to put pieces together. Back in Camp when rebuilding the Aphrodite Cabin, he won a price for best Ikea furniture constructor, so he felt like this was a good idea.  
"I've got to warm you though.", Nico said before they started, "Computer, phones and stuff like that tend to not work around me, so if this doesn't work, it's probably my fault."  
Tim brushed it of as and told Nico he didn't believe in predetermined bad luck.  
"I'm sure we can do it.", is what Tim finished his sort speech with. 

At the end of the day, the computer wasn't finished. Nico keep on loosing focus, turns out building furniture isn't like building a computer at all, and he thought it would be an overall nicer experience. So Tim decided to explore Nico's Gaming Room and show him games like Overwatch or just Mario kart. Nico sucked at those games, and it didn't help there was no internet connection anytime the console was trying to load one, but he still had fun. Dick and Damian both decided to played with them. At the end of the day, Nico won one round of Mario party, wich made him very happy and Damian had smashed a controller after being hit by a blue shell in Mariocart and ending up last.  
The brothers were called downstairs for Dinner and then went back to playing in Nico's room.  
After several rounds of Mario party with just dance right after, Tim passed out on Nico's couch.  
"Finally. He hasn't slept in days.", was Dick's commentary about that.  
"Is it okay, if he stays here? If I carry him over to his room he could wake up, and then he'd drink even more coffee to stay awake."  
Nico just nodded. He knew how a lot of Demigods who fought in at least one of the wars, who were afraid of sleeping, the dark, or explosions, since they associate it witch danger to much. He remembered Will going to other people's cabins in order to help them find sleep, together with some Hypnis kids of course, and how Will always slept in the Hades cabin with that excuse.  
Now, Nico didn't know what Tim had been through, but he had seen so many traumatised Kids in his Life, that he knew Tim was one of them. He was pretty sure everyone in Wayne Mannor had a trauma, except may be Alfred, with the exception that the other could hide it better.  
"Oh and Dick?"  
Dick turned around and looked at Nico.  
"Yea?"   
"Good Night.", Nico went to the door of his room, looked into the Hallway and shouted "Good night Damian.", in the direction he saw him leave to.  
Nico hear a distant thanks from Damian and revived an uncomfortable hug from Dick as a good night wish. 

Nico couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Tartarus, or Will leaving him, or something else that made him cry, so he stopped trying after the sixt attempt.   
He just sat on his Bed and pulled the strings of a guitar he found in one of the Rooms of Wayne Mannor. Austin had thought him a bit, and he still could remember Will's face when he sung for him at his birthday. Right now, he was playing the melody to happy birthday, when He was about to give sleeping another try, when he heard someone scream very loud, and then cry.   
Nico at first thought the sobbing came from outside, but when he leaned out of his window, he couldn't see or hear anyone. He was about to check the Hallway when he realised the sobbing came from his gaming room. 

"Hey, Tim, are you all right?", Nico asked carefully. He wasn't very good with people, especially when they were crying, but he fealt like he had to help somehow.   
"Yea, I'm fine.",Tim relied with a shaking voice, tears running down his cheeks.   
"Is there anything I can do for you?"  
"No, just... wait, am I still in your gaming room?"  
"Yea, you fell asleep and Dick said if he carried you, you could wake up and refuse to sleep again."  
"He was right about that part."   
Tim looked sad and Nico wanted to help, he just didn't know how to. He thought about what Will used to do for him when he had a nightmare and had an idea.  
"Okay, I know what we're going to do. C'mon, let's go to your Room.",Nico told Tim and helped him get up.   
"I can try to carry you.", Nico offered, but Tim declined.   
In Tim's room, Nico told Tim to get into the bathroom, brush his teeth and so on and so forth, while he prepared his bed.   
Tim's room was a mess. He had a few duffle bags lying around, something that Nico didn't know if it was a blanket or a cape, and a lot of books on his desk. Nico was pretty sure Alfred would clean everything up if Tim would give him the chance, but Tim's Room was locked when they got there, so Nico assumed Tim didn't want anyone in his room. It took him a while, but he eventually found a fresh pair of PJs in Tim's closet. 

"Here you go.", Nico gave Tim the Pyama and told him to get changed, after that he tucked him into his bed.  
"You've got to sleep. Seriously. If there is anything wrong, call me, I'll be in my Room.", Nico told Tim. He was about to leave, when he headed Tim's voice call for him.  
"Wait, Nico."  
"Yes?"  
"Thank you. I didn't realise I had to sleep that bad."  
Nico smiled at him gently.  
"You're Welcome."

Immediately after Nico left Tim's room, he went to check in on the others. He wanted to tell Dick and Damian they shouldn't worry about Tim since he already took care of him and brought him to bed. Then he'd have a serious talk with Bruce on how his adoptive son was obviously traumatised and tell him to send Tim to a therapist.   
But when he entered Dick's room, it was empty. At first, the son of Hades wasn't too surpried by that, Dick was a grown adult who was well able to decide where he wanted to be at what time, but when Damien's Room was empty too, he got suspicious.   
Nico entered Dick's room again. "Maybe Dick was just in the bathroom.", he thought. "Or Dick also has a gaming room and he, like Tim fell asleep there?" But every additional Room also was empty.   
"Then he's just out on a party. It should be Friday, so why not?"  
Nico was about to leave, when he found something interesting: a twin pear of Eskrima, and a Domino mask. He wouldn't know, why anyone needed that, unless Dick was a cosplayer. While Dick didn't seem like that type of guy to Nico, he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and left the room.  
He looked through Damian's Room too. No one in the bathroom, no one in the walk in closet. Nico didn't find anything he wouldn't suspect in Damian's room, all though the sheer amount of knives wasn't very calming. However, he found out that Damian was a very good artist. There were a lot of drawings in his room, mostly his aimals but he also found some of Bruce, Dick, a not very complementing one of Tim, and a few of people Nico didn't know.   
Bruce also wasn't in his room, but Nico fealt uncomfortable while looking through Bruce's room , so he left pretty fast.

Nico started a last attempt to get anyone to show up and agnolige his existence. He wakes down the big staircase that lead to the mal hall, when he purpudly fell down. Nico got a few scratches and bruises, yet he screamed as f he was in way more pain then he was.  
Alfred, who was down in the Batcave actually saw this on the security camera.   
"Batman, I have some trouble at the mannor, you don't need to show up, I can handle it myself, so don't be worried if I'm offline for a few minutes."  
"Alright Alfred. Take your time, it doesn't seem like anything is going to happen anytime soon."

Nico looked through the hall. He didn't know how long he was lying there, but the fact that no one was coming meant he was right.  
He stood up, ate a bit of ambrosia just to be sure and went how hard again.  
Needless to say that Alfred, who saw this, would go on to tell Batman. And needless to say, that Batman's suspicion would only be raised by this.


	11. The story of how Nico's friends died

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to take some time and thanks Epuall, Unclericktroll101 ,Party1136, amberGreenleif , Hailey152, aLL_pRotEct_NiCo, YaoiQueen636, MatthewCards, Ravenpuff_angus, Smoothiefeels, A_Winchester_Sister, fujoshi90, RSeamonster, mela83, and everyone else who wrote a comment on this Fic on Wattpad, and Catharina2003, TheRavenSaidNeverMore, JP, PepperSoniRoni and Abby Crashing on Ao3 for leaving Comments, Ideas and motivation. Thank you <3

The day Nico was supposed to spend time with Damian started off very bad.   
Nico had another nightmare, and when he woke up, be had the feeling he had shadow travelled, and as he looked around he realised he had.   
He was in Cabin 13, the Hades Cabin, his cabin. As he expected, no one was in here. What he didn't expect was his stuff still being exactly were he left it. Well, the garbage and the stuff that was lying in the middle of his cabin weren't there, but the cupboards still had his clothes and Mytho-magic figurines in them. 

He left his cabin and saw Camp as he had never seen it: Full of Cabins of all sorts of gods he never heard of, but still very quiet. Only a few kids were outside, they were with the Pegaside, but they didn't notice him.   
"So this is Camp without a war.", he said to himself and went towafds the big house, were he wanted to talk to Chiron.

"Chiron? Mr. D?", Nico shouted into the empty house.   
It was wait swing the infirmary on his way there so empty. He tried not to read too much into the fact that Will wasn't here, since by now He'd be well over 40.  
"What do you want?", said a tired voice, that wasn't Mr D's or Chiron's, yet somehow familiar to Nico.   
"I want to speak with Mr D or with Chi-", he was cut off the same voice- an old friend.  
"Nico? Is it really you?"   
Nico turned around to see "Percy? What are you doing here?" Nico could see bitterness in Percy's eyes and realise something was wrong.   
"Wait, were is Annabeth?"

"I think you will want to sit down for this.", Chiron said. He had dark shadows underneath his eyes, his beard only had one grey streak and Nico could see a bit of dryed drool at the left side of his lip.  
"Jason, Annabeth, Piper, Leo, Frank, Hazel and Will are all dead."  
"What?"  
"Calm down Nico, I'll tell you the whole story."  
"Go ahead."  
And Chrion started to tell Nico the story, about how his Friends died.

"It all started when Apollo made an appearance at Camp, as a mortal Teenager. He told us that Zeus had taken away his Godliness hand that he had to pass some tests to go back to being a God. You were there, but you disappeared before Apollo succeeded. And while fighting against one of the old Roman eporors, Jason left his life in order to protect the others.   
We received the message of Jason's death about 1 Week after you went missing. Jason's death made us paranoid about what happened to you, so we sent out a search group, consisting of Hazel, Will, Percy and Annabeth. They went around the world, Percy said you've been to Eleven?"

"Twelve."  
"Twelve countries, until they got desperate and decided to go and ask you father for help. Unfortualy, the furies and hellhounds did not like the idea of a few mortals going in and out of the underworld, so Annabeth gave her live saving the others."

Nico fealt the quilt for Annabeth's death on his shoulders. Piper was killed years later, by a gang invading her house, since the famous Tristan McLean lived there, and he should have some money, right?

Hazel and Frank moved to Bialia, and started a ranch there. Hazel got pregnant at the age of 19, and their Daughter would later move on to become an actress, before Hazel and Frank were also killed. The official version is that they had a car accident, but Percy suspects that the bialian Government hat sonething to do with their deaths, since they were very open apposers of the royal Family.  
Then, the Demigods lived for quite a while, not very happy after all their loses, but at least they were alive. Percy was asked by his father to do him a favour by training his armed generals in Sword to Sword combat. After he not only done that but also showed them more creative ways to win a battle. As a Gift, Poseidon offered to give him immortality, similar to Chiron's: as long as he trained Demigods, he wouldn't die of natural causes, and he'd survive longer with lethal injures. All though Percy's first thought was to decline, in order to see Annabeth again, he knew how much he enjoyed it to mentor the younger kids at Camp. He already was 25, he couldn't see himself doing anything else in the Future, so he accepted. 

In the mean Time, Will fell in Love again. He knew he still had feelings for Nico, but everyone was very sure about the fact, that Nico would never come back. His new Love was a child of Aphrodite, Jamie. Jamie and Will decided to marry when they were relatively young, out of fear one of them would die before they had a chance to. In that marriage, they somehow got biological kids of both of them, and when Nico asked how, Percy shrugged his shoulder and went "for all I know, I could be father to horses, so I just accepted this."

Hearing Will was happy made Nico happy, but he also want happy about the fact that Will was with another boy.   
Will would later move on to find the last few important factors and go into history as the Doctor that cured Cancer. 

Leo would open a mechanic shop with Calypso, who started to work as a teacher for music and history. Leo opened up a small mechanic shop, fixing basically everything people needed him to fix. They both loved it, and they were both well knows in their Town in Indiana, as very kind and good people.   
Calypso stated to get more and more of her old powers back and Leo discovered more and more he could do. Sadly, the more powerful you get, the more monsters you atrack. All Percy and Chiron knew was, that Leo and Calypso were killed in a monster attack, they had no information about the monster itself. 

Will frequently visited Camp, together with his husband, and they also brought their Daughter with them. Percy thought, they were one of the few Demigods who made it, who would be able to grow old, but he was thinking wrong.   
"Will died 4 years ago, at the age of 64. He, Jamie, Alice and Elisa wanted to visit Camp, but apparently the fates were in a bad mood. A ton of monsters noticed them, I'm taking Hellhounds, Empusai, Harpies and stuff like that y'know?"  
Nico nodded.  
"One of these monsters somehow managed to crash Will's car. They were to far away from Camp to just run, so of course Will has to pull a hero and starts fighting the monsters off. Jamie wanted to stay behind, to make sure Will would be fine, but Will knew that if Jamie stayed behind too, they both would be killed. Long story short, Will died while protecting his family."

Nico said nothing. Chiron was right, Nico really needed to sit for a while. He fealt dizzy and fealt guilty for the death of most of friends, although Percy told him it's not his fault. 

"C'mon, Let's get some breackfast.",Nico said after a while of silence.   
"Great idea.", Percy said and together, they left the big house.

Although it has been less than a week for Nico, it was strange to eat breakfast at Camp Half-blood after 50 years. The Pavillion still had the crack in the floor from that time the skeleton warriors attacked Percy, and there still was a hand burned into the table from the Hephaistos Cabin, from that Time Leo wanted to mark his place as his, but there now were a lot more tables. Allthough Percy offered Nico to sit at the Table with Chiron, him and Mr D, Nico sat at the table of cabin 13. 

He didn't expect to get company, so he was very surprised when 2 girls sat down at his table.   
"Oh, who are you?", one them asked. Her hair was blonde, but her eyes were as dark as Nico's.  
"Are you knew here?", the other girl asked. She had green hair and one of her eyes was blue while the other was green.  
"Not exactly, no. I'm Nico."  
"I'm Jessica and this is my Grilfreind Donna.", the blonde said.  
"Who of you is the Hades Child?", Nico asked curiously.  
"Me.", Donna said.  
"Nice, and who is your godly Parent?"  
"My Mom is Demeter."  
"So anyways, Nico, when did you get here? I don't render anyone arriving yesterday so..."  
"Oh, I came here this morning at around 6 am. Acedentally sha-", he saw Percy sand up and walk away from the Pavillion, so Nico stood up too.  
"Sorry, I got to go. It was nice meeting you tho."  
"Percy!", Nico called, but Percy didn't seem to hear him.  
"Percy were are you going?"  
"Oh, I got to control the cabins and how clean they are, wanna come?"  
"Never did this but sure.", he said and Tagged along.


	12. Let's play capture the flag

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally one part with the previous chapter. I decided to split them up since that chapter would have been very long compared to the others.
> 
> Now have fun reading the new Chapter <3

While Nico was having a great time at Camp Half-blood, the Waynes were worried out of their mind. Nico was no where to be found, the security footage from outside didn't show him leaving the mannor, and the mayor rooms you'll inevitably have to go through, which also had cameras, didn't show him on the security take either.   
Of course, after all their years as a publicly known rich and as a vigilante family, they all expected the worst. 

When Nico didn't make an appearance at breakfast, Alfred went to check in on him, only to find out he wasn't there, or in any of his additional rooms. The Butler, who was used to a kid not being in their bed, didn't worry at first, he simply went to see the security tape. But that tape only showed Nico geting into the corridor of his room, he never left it. The others wouldn't have noticed Nico making any noise, since they would either be on patrol or in bed.   
Alfred's first instinct was to call the police, but a millisecond after thinking that, he rembered he had the world's greatest defective living with him, and he wondered why he didn't think of that first.

Bruce, of course, lost his mind. He didn't have a lot of chances to talk to Nico, but he still liked him. And if Nico could just leave without being seen by any camera, he had underestimated him and his abilities.  
"Alfred, I think we should inform Jim.", Bruce said after a few moments of thinking.  
"As you wish.", Alfred said and went to call the police commissioner.  
"I will be working on this myself too, it would be very susbicous if I didn't inform the police."  
"Shall I tell Mr Kent or any member of the league?"  
"No, not yet. If he's still gone in 7 days, the league will help the search."

"Wait, you are telling me the Apollo and the Hephaistos Cabin set up two whole new Activities?"  
"Yeah, the Apollo kids are doing improvised theatre every first and third Saturday of the month and the cabin 7 kids are doing wagon races, every second Sunday of the month."  
"Like the ones Quintus introduced?"  
"Yes, just more and at the same time less dangerous.", Percy said with sparkling eyes.  
"Now that you're back, you'll see for yourself."  
Nico got what Percy amplified with that statement, and while Nico knew he didn't want to stay at Camp Half-blood, he knew he didn't want to have the conversation with Percy right now, so he just kept quiet.   
"Hey, how about a race at the climbing wall?", Percy suddenly asked.  
"With or without powers?"  
"Without. I mean c'mon, you didn't expect me to fall for that?"  
Nico, who very well knew Percy was referencing the endless times Nico simply shadowtraveled to the top, put on a confused face and went "I have no idea what you're talking about."  
They both had a laugh on their way to the wall.

"They took the call, but they told me they couldn't really do anything before 24 hours passed."  
"I know Alfred, we had our Kids have been kidnapped enough to know that. But thanks a lot for calling the police anyways."  
"No problem. Did you make any progress?"  
"No. Still no sighn of Scarecrow, the Riddler or Nico."  
"You should probably go to Wayne Enterprises. There will be a prize for Students about swinging the best robot that is supposed to help disabled kids, and I think it would be a pleasant surprise if you shoved up. After all, Nico may just be in the City Centre."  
Bruce checked the Time and then asked, at what time the event would be.  
"If you get ready now, you'll be there in Time."

"We are playing capture the flag tonight. You can join in if you want to."  
"Who is Hades up against?"  
"Well, the matches this time is Dementer vs Hephaistos. Dementer has Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Dionysus, and Iris You'd be with Hephaistos, they have Athena, Apollo, Nemesis, Eros, Hypnos, Aphrodite and obviously Hades."  
"Wait, you're not playing with us?"  
"No, they complained about it being unfair that an immortal was fighting them. But I have an alliance with the hunters of Artemis that we fight together against the rest of the camp, whenever they make an appearance."  
"You have allied yourself with the enemy!", Nico joked. "But sure, I'll help to crush Demented and her Allies."  
"Oh crap, I forgot the Time again, I had to start teaching Swordfighting 5 Minutes ago."  
He went and gave Nico a look, that Nico knew.  
"What do you want Percy?"  
"Can we shadowtravel?"  
"I thought you hated shadowtravel."  
"Yea, but I'm late and I'm pretty sure Mr. D will make me wash dishes again."  
"Alright, take my arm."

"Woah, Percy were did you come from?", a small kid with mechanical left arm asked.   
"And who is this?"  
"I'm Nico di Angelo, I'll he-"  
"Wait what? You're the Nico di Angelo?", a girl with dark skin and braids asked.  
"Well, yes."  
"The guy who fought in both wars and convinced Hades to help in the Battle of Manhattan?", another kid asked.  
"Yes, but it wasn't that impre-"  
"Shouldn't you be like 70?"  
"Well, technically I am, but the whole story is very confusing and basically my Dad is an Asshole and that's why I'm still 15."  
Almost everyone gasped when he calmed his father an Asshole, and he knew there were better ideas out there than to call a god an asshole, but he just didn't care.  
"Now that everyone knows Nico. Let's go back to fighting."

After the event, Bruce was in his office together with Luscious. They were actually taking about the company and how the latest drop in the stock prize could hit them, when his phone rang.   
"It's Barabra, so it might be an emergency. I got to get this.", he told Luscious and went into a small side room to telephone.  
"How's it going Bruce?"  
"Barbara, I'm pretty busy right now. The chemistry section wasted milli-"  
"That doesn't sound good, but I got new Intel on the kid you took in.", Barbara said like she already knew about the stock prize.  
"Sounds good but this really is impor-"  
"His mother died 1941 in an explosion in a hotel. Nico and a certain Bianca were the only ones who miraculously managed to survive. Want me to go on?"  
Bruce took a moment to answer. He was sure that the stock prize would get back to normal soon, but on the other hand, Barbara would more than likely be able to tell him later.  
"Alright spill."  
"Yes.", Barbara said happily and then started to explain to Bruce, that the kids were taken into a hotel by a lawyer, only to be never seen again. Since it was the second world war, a lot of kids had lost their parents. They would die of starvation a few weeks later, since these kids obviously weren't able to work or something along those lines.   
"Is that all?"  
"Well, yes, for now, I'll dig into that hotel later, right now, I think Dad has a lead on were twoface may be, so I'll go and scout it out as Batgirl."  
"Shouldn't you be studying? Dick told me you had exams coming up?"  
"Not you too. Just let me do this. I can't concentrate anyways."  
"It won't me my fault if you fail."  
"Yea, I know that. See you tonight on patrol."  
"Bye."

"Alright team, meet the new kid: Nico di Angelo.", the black girl from Swordfighting training said. As it turned out, Nico already thought Hephaistos kids how to fight.  
"That's right, we got a legendary with Attack 5 000 on our team.", the kid with the mechanical arm announced.  
"You play Mytho-magic?"  
"You too?", the kid asked. His eyes were shining, like he couldn't believe how luck he had gotten.  
"Of course I do. I got all the figurines that were out when I was here last. I honestly can't wait to catch up on-"   
"Guys, it's nice to see you two freaking out over some card game, but we need to talk strategy.", another kid with blue hair and eyes, that had a lot of clours said.   
"Now, we all know they got the strong hand on nature, with Dementer AND Dionysus. So we'll do what we can do best: be logical about it."  
The kid with many eye colours started to talk and explain the strategy. It was complicated, but not too bad. Nico was put on the attack team, while the sister he barely had talked to was put on defence.   
"Any more questions?"  
"If Cinderella's shoe was a perfect fit, how did it fall off?", a Apollo kid asked.  
"Any questions regarding the strategy?"  
"Alright, let's go!"

The game of capture the flag was pretty good and it took Nico's thoughts off everything that happened to him in recent time and just let him be a teenager for once.  
They were close the end, Nico could feel it, when something he didn't expect happen: a Ton of Aphrodite kids were with Nico and they Now had a good chance of actually getting the flag, since most original guards got bored and wondered off towards fight.  
"Alright Hoes, T, Sam, you take James, me and Jill are taking Jess and Nico and Tom are taking Luna. Good plan?"  
"Or how about I distract them and then you guys grab the flag?"  
"You think we could-", the initial plan maker wanted to ask but was interrupted by Tom.  
"Good idea Nico. But how exactly are you planning on doing that?"  
The son of Hades smirked his devilish smirk and replied "Leave that to me."  
Nico went ahead, rose 5 or 6 skeletons and attacked one of the guards. The other ones, smelling action joined on and stated to flight against Nico, who had no trouble holding his ground, but pretended to, so they wouldn't loose interest. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Aphrodite kids running away with the flag. He smiled and stated to go full on into battle. Nico presumed he was dealing with Iris kids, until he saw the electric blue eyes of on of them.  
"Let me guess, you're that Zeus kid?"  
"What's that supposed to mean?", the kid called Tom snapped back.  
"It means that I was guessing you father is Zeus."  
"Don't think that just because you are supposedly one of the kids in those campfire stories, I am going to go easy on you."  
Nico was about to say something, when he heared the sign of the match being over. The skeletons fell down want now were nothing more than bones, which would disappear in a few hours.  
"I like you fighting style, all of you guys, you just need to pay more attention to what is happening.", he said and pointed at the empty flag pool.  
Nico went away, but he could hear the Zeus kid giving out to his teammates. in the background.

"You guys, you made it!", he said, genuinely happy for Aphrodite's children.  
"This was Aphrodite's first win since the begin of this year, thank you.", The kid called T said.  
"You're Welcome. A tip for the next time: defnetly allow yourself with Athena and one if the big 3.", he told them. They looked happy for receiving advice and looked like they wanted to take noted as Nico told them a decent enough strategie. After that he went to Percy to say goodbye.

"What do you mean 'You're going now? Didn't you say you wanted to stay?", Percy asked, honestly confused.  
"I never said that Percy. The mortals I stay with must be worried out of their mind and the longer I stay away, the more trouble I am in."  
"But the cities of the mortals aren't save for you. Didn't you want to stay in Camp?"  
"That was after the war, Percy. When everyone else was still alive, when you went immortal, when Will was alive.", Nico fealt his eyes tear up, so he pushed the thought of Will out of his mind.  
"Besides, you know I can't do that. The mortals care for me and I care for them-", that was overexagurated, but Percy didn't need to know that."-and if I ever want to set a foot back into the mortal world, I'd not go missing again."  
"Nico, you've missed out on so much. The threats out there aren't just monsters, humans are getting crazy powerful too."  
"I survived out there when I was 10, I'm pretty sure I'll survive now.", Nico had no idea, why Percy suddenly was acting like this. He knew he was very loyal, but not like this.  
"Please don't go Nico. I, I can't.", Percy said and looked down.  
"You can't what?"  
Percy now looked like he did when he came out if tharatus. The pain was written on his face, so obvious even a blind man could see it and his eyes looked dark.  
"I can't loose another friend. I can't see another friend being forced to give up on their dreams.", there were tears that started to roll down his face.  
"I don't want it to happen again Nico. You are save here with me. Just please stay here."  
While Nico fealt genualy sorry for Percy, he still had to go. Staying at Camp wouldn't bring him happiness, especially since the only reason he stayed in the first place married someone else and died.  
"I'm sorry but I've got to go."  
The hugged for a while, and while Nico didn't really like it, it wasn't as disturbing as it was to be hugged by someone who wasn't Will or Hazel.  
"I'll come back, I promise.", he said, then the son of Hades stepped into the shadows at Camp Half-blood and stepped out of the shadows at the Gates of Wayne Mannor.

"Nico, were have you been?", Bruce asked. He looked like he'd spend the whole day worrying.  
"Out." Nico really didn't want to have this talk, but he knew he couldn't really help it.  
"Young man, I've spend the whole day worrying about you, thinking someone kidnaped you or worse-", Bruce took a breath and then continued to scolt at Nico. "-and you're telling me, you've been 'out'?", he asked, drawing equation marks in the air.  
"Well, yes. I'm going to tell everyone were I was, But I don't want to tell the story 5 Times, so can maybe everyone come, so I don't have to repeat myself?"  
"You messed up, I'm sure you'll have no problem with explaining yourself several times."  
"I need like an hour for this story, but if you want to waste everyone's time, then sure, I can tell the story several times."  
Bruce looked like he didn't like the idea, but he still told Alfred to call everyone down stairs.

As soon as they all arrived, Nico asked Bruce who else he'd told that he wasn't there that day. Bruce looked like he had even more suspicion on his mind, but told him there was no one out there except for the people in that room who knew he wasn't in the mannor for that day.  
"Okay Guys, so basically..." he stopped and snapped his fingers and then waved his hand.  
"I was here all day. Me and Damian had an okay time, but the Swordfighting stuff was so exhausting that I didn't really do anything else.", he said while waving his hand. At that moment, he prayed to all the gods he knew the names of, that this would work. Some god apparently liked being prayed at, so Nico manipulating the mist worked.  
"And also you will tell everyone you told about this that I'm back now, that I'm well and that they shouldn't mention this ever again."  
They all stood there for a few seconds, then looked at each other, wondering why they all were in the same room.  
"You guys so full from Dinner, that you're just standing there?", Nico asked and went upstairs.


	13. Gotham Academy and a shopping trip

The next morning, Nico slept too long again. When he entered the dining room, everyone was almost finished. It didn't really bit her Nico, but he could see Bruce and Alfred were bothered by it.  
"Master Nico, do I have to   
"Nico, We have an appointment at Gotham Academy today at 11 O'clock. About what courses you should Visit and stuff like that. After that we're going to a tailor to get your measurements taken, and if you're up to it we can go shopping for other clothes after that too."  
"And don't forget our friends are coming over tonight at 8.", Dick added.

"Hello Nico, my Name is Thomas Pears. I am the headmaster of Gotham Academy.", a tall man with no hair and nice smile said and held his hand open so Nico could shake it.  
"Nice to meet you.", Nico answered and shook his hand.  
"Nico, Mr Wayne already told me you have ADHD and Dyslexia. Now, these learning disabilities are very different from person to person, so could you describe what it's like for you?"  
"When reading or when trying to concentrate?"  
"How about we start witch reading?"  
"Alright, so let's say that word there, on the book cover, I know it says something, and I know those are Latin letters, but when I try to read it it goes all blury, and feels like the letters are moving or even falling of the book.", Nico told Mr Pears. He fealt like this was the best he could do to describe how he fealt, although he didn't feel like that description was quite right.  
"Well, I heard that before, would you mind and try to read something of this worksheet? Not out loud, I want to see if you could handle it."  
Nico dryed to read through the paper, but with the headmaster and Bruce being in the room, he got more nervous that he should be.  
"I think the first sentence is: Hermia deceives how she feeds in the next paragraph.", Nico said after staring at the sheet for what fealt like hours to him, but in reality were 2 minutes.  
"It says Hermia describes how she feels in the next paragraph, but you did a good job.   
I noticed you constantly moving your leg."  
Nico looked down at his leg and realised he was moving it and stoped, only so start fiddling with one of the pens from the table in front of him.  
"And I noticed you start to stare off into the distance for a while while trying to read. So I can roughly guess were your ADHD is.   
Now, I have some final questions for you. Mr Wayne has a say in this too, since he is your legal guardian, but I want to know your opinion on this too."  
"Go ahead.", Bruce said and the headmaster started to talk.  
"My plan would be to place you in the special needs classes, were you will have classes of altogether 10 children. You will do the regular lesson stuff there, but you will learn different than the other kids. There will be some additional classes, like P.E or your two chosen subjects where you will be in a regular sized class. How does that sound?"  
Special classes. In the end if the day he was gald he wouldn't have teacher yell at him beacuse he was lazy, but he didn't know how he liked that idea.  
"Sounds good. When will I be choosing my extra subjects?"  
"Soon enough. Mr Wayne, what do you think of this?"  
"That does sound like a good idea to me. Will there be special trained tutors in these classes?"  
"Of course. If we offer special needs classes, we should have the right people for that job, shouldn't we?"  
"And what about the other kids, will they..." Bruce had some more questions, but Nico zoomed out after some time. It wasn't like he didn't want to listen, he just couldn't concentrate.  
"Nico?"  
The son of Hades flinched and looked at his new headmaster.   
"Welcome back to earth. The additional subjects I talked about earlier were Cooking, Sewing, theatre, musical theatre, photography, zoology, robotics, woodworking, blacksmithing, horseback riding, design, graphic design, basic medicine and health, economics, choir or some language surrounding subjects, I don't know how easy those will be for you because... you know."  
"What are those subjects?"  
"We offer advanced French, Spanish and German, besides that we offer regular Japanese, Latin, ancient Greek, Arabic, Swahili, Algonquin, and sign language. And then there's also poetry, writing and creative writing."  
"Do I have to choose now?"  
"Well Mr Wayne and I have to talk about some stuff, not only regarding you, so while we're talking, you can think about it. If you want to you can take this sheet with you, all of your options are on them again, but I don't know how much that will help you."  
Nico took the sheet, thanked Mr Pears and left the room.

"So Nico what did you take?"  
"I trust wanted to taken ancient Greek, since the gods really interest me, but I'm guessing that's a lot of translation and nothing more. So I took cooking and photography."  
"Photography? Interesting. You probably shouldn't tell Dick about it. He got really upset when he heared the kids in the year below him could choose photography.", Bruce told Nico.  
They were on their way to the tailor the Waynes trusted. Nico had to have his measurements taken, since there was a Gala conning up and Nico couldn't show up in streetwear, although he'd like to.  
They stopped at a fancy looking shop, which had beautiful dresses and nice tuxedos in the display window.   
"The shop looks kind of closed...", Nico told Bruce after looking through the display window and seeing no light or a sign of a living person inside.  
"Nonsense, come on inside.", Bruce made an inviting hand gesture. Nico followed him inside the shop, but only after making the sign to keep of evil.

"Oh will you look at that!", a woman in her early to mid 30ies said, as she saw Nico and Bruce enter.  
"The best tipper in town and a young face that would look absolutely gorgeous in a tux.", she said and sounded very exited.  
"Hello Erica. This is Nico, the newest family addition. He needs the usual stuff, I'll be giving Simon the suits he needs to fix."  
"Simon? He should be in the back. Go in and have a look."  
Bruce nodded, went behind the cash register and opened the door behind it. The shop itself was very empty, with the only sound Nico could hear was some music and some distant chatter from what looked like a changing room.   
"Do you want me to take the measurements first or do you want to decide what type of suit you'd like?"  
Nico knew he would hate taking the measurement, so he decided to do that first, so he could be done with it.

In the giant changing room, Nico was told he could either let the woman Bruce called Erica do the measurements or do them himself and being told how to by Erica.  
"Well, what do I have to take off in order for you to do the measurements properly?"  
"Well that hoodie and the pair of jeans since they are to baggy. But if you're wearing a t-shirt underneath the hoodie you can keep that on."  
"If you talk me through the measurements, you'll be were exactly."  
"If you want me to, I'll wait outside, but usually I am here with the costumer."  
Nico was going through the pros and cons of each situations. He had lost track of the scars on his body, and he hated being touched. But there was a chance of him doing it wrong, and He didn't know Bruce well enough to know if he was the type of person who'd get Erica fired if the suit didn't fit correctly.  
"You can take the measurements.", he told Erica and took his hoodie off. Since his new backstory he had an abusive patent, so explaining scars shouldn't be that big if a problem. He still hated the touching part, but he didn't want a person looking their job beacuse he did a mistake.  
There were scars on his arms, and all though Nico had scars that looked worse, he was pretty sure this was bad by mortal standards.  
"Okay then.", she said and began measuring.

"Nico wanted to take an black suit, with a black shirt and a black tie. A bit like this."  
The brown haired woman held up a diet she'd make quickly.  
"But I thought we'd ask for your opinion on this one, so He you're playing and it's your gala and-"  
"Y'know what? I am in the mood to spoil the newest member to my family, so you can might as well do both. If one happens to be inappropriate at a Gala, he can still decide to wear the other one. Does that sound like an idea to you?"  
"Yes, yes it does." The son of Hades was glad he didn't have to spend another moment of his life in the tailor shop. His demigod senses told him the people there were bad news. Not exactly monsters, but also no person, who'd support you in a battle.  
"C'mon let's go. We are expected at the mall."

At the end of the Day, Nico had gotten almost everything about his age could wish for: expensive designer clothes, new shoes, 3 fancy watches (He couldn't decide wich one he liked so Bruce got all of them) a new Laptop since the one in his room already was Damian's old one and Nico didn't have to use hand-me-downes, a brand new phone and other stuff along those lines. He also was going to own at least 2 tailor made suits by the end of the next week. In the shops they visited and and the way form those shops to the car, they were the centre of attention, because the boys Bruce Wayne gets seen with are usually his sons or other children that will have some say in Wayne enterprises sooner or later.  
The only problem being: Nico didn't need or want all of this. He wanted to talk to Bruce about that. Nico had spend time by himself be for and after Dinner, trying to figure out a way to tell Bruce, that he couldn't use the internet or, gods forbid, a phone, unless he wanted to die.   
Nico could heard the doorbell ring and a few Voices in the hallway, when he, Tim and Dick were called downstairs.


	14. Movie night

There were three young adults Nico had never seen before, two of them were redheads while the other one was blonde, at the front door.   
Nico wasn't too exited to meet new people, but he guessed this was the movie night Dick had invited him to, so he had to go thought this.  
"Barbara!", Dick shouted happily from his room. He ran downstairs, hugged and kissed her enthusiastically and then gave her a long kiss.  
"Jesus Dick, it's not like we haven't seen each other for more than a week.", Barbara said while enjoying it.   
"That's way to long.", Dick said and they kissed again.  
The tall blonde cleared her throat, wich made Dick and Barabara stop doing what they were doing and Dick turned around.  
Dick grabbed Nico, who was still very close to the stairs, and pulled him closer to the door.  
"Guys this is Nico. Nico these are Barabara, Artemis and Roy."  
"Actally," Roy said," I go by Will now. Y'know since the real Ro-"  
"Oh sure. Nico scratch that last Name, this is Will."  
The three talked a bit while Nico was more of a listener than an active parttajer, when Will asked him a question.  
"Are you even old enough to watch horror movies?"  
"Yea, why wouldn't I?", Nico said. 'I mean I'm like 120? 130? Dunno, but I'm way older than you.', he mentally added to that.  
"It's just you seem-"   
The doorbell rang again, this time people around Nico's age were in front of it.   
"Hey Guys." Tim greeted his friends. Nico had no idea were Tim suddenly appeared from, but since he did that too on a regular basis, he didn't complain.  
"You're Tim's new brother? That is so crash. I am Bartholomew Allen, but people usually call me Bart."  
"I am Cassandra, but please for the love of the gods, call me Cassie." To Nico something was strange about this Cassie character. Besides her saying gods, she also seemed like a Demigod, although she wasn't a direct Demigod. More like a great great grandfather of hers was a good.  
"Well, you all already know my Name, so I'm guessing can get started..?"  
"Sure. I'll tell Alfred to start making some popcorn."  
"No need, we brought some.", Barbara said, opened her bag and got out some popcorn, that looked delicious.  
"Crash, but we've got Bart with us so I don't know how long that will last.", Cassie said and they all laughed, except Bart and Nico. Bart looked like a memory he tryed to forget came up again and Nico had no clue what they were talking about.  
"I'll get to it, so this night can be as asterous as we planned."  
'So teens in the future sound like this', Nico thought. 'Just as weird as I was getting used to.'

"Nico, you seem like the kind of guy who'd like watching Horror movies.", Artemis assumed.   
"You're not particularly wrong.", Nico said. He himself had never watched one, but he imagined it being fun, especially seeing what scared mortals.  
"So tell me, do you have a favourite?"  
This was the kind of Situation he knew he'd be in sooner or later. However that didn't mean he was prepared for this kind of Situation.  
"Well, I mainly watched old movies, so you can always have me with...", Nico thought as hard as he could and remembered some camper taking about movies the last time he was there, so "Alien. Y'know the really old one.", was his response.  
"You didn't strike me as the vintage type of guy.", Artemis admitted.  
"I didn't exactly choose to watch old stuff, but the older the cheaper you can buy it."   
"So let's watch Alien to get started shall we?"  
"Sound like an idea."

All in all Nico had a fun night. Since horrormovies didn't scare him, it was also pretty interesting to see what the other thought of as scary. At some point he thought about Halloween in Camp and how everyone loved the skeletons performing "spooky scary skeletons" and how someone had a mental breakdown after going through his horror house.  
Nico didn't know how mortals usulay reacted to horror movies. He did want to see one with Will in a cinema but that wouldn't happen anytime soon. So of course, he thought the reactions of the others were standard reactions from a mortal, when they in fact were not. The others however knew it was very strange for a 15 year old to be completely calm when watching horror movies.   
"Nico was like the scariest thing about the whole night. How he just sat there and barely moved.", Cassie later told Tim. Tim could only agree with her. He had seen interrogation footage of Samatha Oldman, a serial killer from the 40s, and the way she was overly kalm kind of reminded him of Nico during the movies.

"Percy! Wake up Percy!", a probably 17 year old Rachel Elizabeth Dare shouted through an Iris message. Percy was sleeping in the Poseidon cabin, Annabeth was lying next to him and they both looked very peaceful.   
"Ra.. Rachel?", he asked. Percy sounded both tired and confused.   
"Percy finally. I tired Chiron and Mr D but I can't reach them for some reason. Anyways, I had another prophecy."  
"What?"  
"Another prophecy Percy. Go get a pen and a paper, Madame Chastia is expecting me back in 4 Minutes."  
Nico had no clue who Madame Chastia was, but since Rachel was wearing her school uniform, he figured she was Rachel's teacher on this Girl's academy she had talked about.  
Percy had a pen and some paper in his hand, when Rachel started to tell him the prophecy.  
"That's it?", be asked.  
"Yes, only 3 lines. A haiku. I don't know, seems like a bad sign to me. But the child lost on it's way home could be Nico."  
Nico could have sworn Percy's eyes got a softer green when Rachel's said that. He looked more hopefull.  
"So this could be a prophecy about Nico...", he said, while sounding like he didn't know what to say.  
"Will is going to love this. And Hazel too. Everyone is going to Love this. Rachel you're great."  
"Yea I know, but that is just one way of interpretation Percy, we should-"  
"C'mon you said it yourself. We're going to find Nico!"  
Nico wanted to scream at Percy to not be an idiot and not do a quest about that stupid prophecy. He wanted to tell Annanth to wake up and talk the nonsense out of Percy. He wanted his friends to realize that this was a stupid idea and that they should stop this mission at all costs, but he couldn't talk. All he could do was watch in horror as his Firend started to plan a mission that would get Annabeth killed.

"Woah Nico, who is Annabeth?", Tim said. He was in Nico's room, a cup of coffee that wasn't meant for Nico in his hand.  
"An old friend.", he said, hoping that would answer the question.  
"Yea? Why didn't you invite her to the little party yesterday?"  
"She wouldn't be able to come."  
"What a shame, but maybe we can meet her someday. Anyways, Alfred sends me, Breakfast stars in 30 Minutes and he don't wants you missing it again. Since you're part of this household now and stuff like that."  
"Oh, thanks for telling me."  
"No problem."  
Tim was about to leave Nico's room when Nico held him back.  
"Tim, what Time is it?"  
"Half past 7."  
"Thanks."  
Nico fist wanted to ask him why he had trouble sleeping and why he actively avoided it, but he chickened out. He didn't want to make Tim uncomfortable and trauma doesn't get better by constantly being questioned about it. Unless that was how professionals did it, but he doubted that.  
This Day, Nico decided, would pass without anything important or unusual happening.


	15. A normal Day for a Demigod (?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyy Guys
> 
> Sorry it took me so long to update, I had school starting again and some writer's block but now I'm back. I wanted to thank y'all for 1 thousand hits, I never thought I could achieve that, especially since I'm new to Ao3. 
> 
> Now have fun with the new Chapter <3

Did I say the Day should pass without anything important or unusual happening? My bad, I meant to say without anything important or unusual happening, for a Demigod.   
Dick wanted to Piknik, but except from Nico no one wanted to leave the mannor, that's why the Wayne's were now sitting in the very big garden of Wayne Mannor.  
"Man, I'd love to play Capture the flag here at some point."  
"You know what, that's a pretty good idea.", Bruce said. He looked like he was planning something and while doing so he had the same look on his face like Annabeth, when she was making plans.  
Damian was about to say something, when another family got into their sight.   
They were three altogether, a female, a male and a Boy in Damian's age.  
The male was pretty tall and looked strong, but for some reason wanted to cover that up like Bruce. He was wearing a glasses and some very standard clothing.   
The female had long black hair, which she braided back. Her clothes also looked like they were from the same shop the male got his from, but looked less country-like.  
The boy was wearing a Sweater with an S printed on it. He also had back hair, and he seemed very energetic.  
There was something off about the Man and the boy, Nico could feel it. He just didn't know what it was.  
"Dami!", the boy shouted, ran towards Damian and hugged.  
"Hi Jon.", Damian said. From his body language, Nico could tell he liked the hug, although his Tone and facial expression suggested something else.  
"Clark, what are you doing here?", Bruce asked confused, after greeting the parents of Jon.  
"I we were in the area so we though why don't we pop in on you guys.", the Woman said.  
"Oh no problem Lois, this is actually great. I mean you guys get to meek Nico before the Gala on Silvestre.", Dick said while standing up from the Piknikblanket.  
Nico, who had been glad he wasn't the centre of attention, gave Dick an annoyed look. He got ready to stand up and greet the guests, when he saw something fast approaching him.   
Of course everything in him switched to survival. He quickly realised two things: his attacker had the be Damian or Jon, judging from hight, posture and other factors. Damian or Jon were attacking with both of their armes, protecting the chest but leaving the stomach vonrable. Nico made a decision, waited exactly 2 seconds, then his attacker was at the right point. Then, Nico punched his attacker in the stomach, leaving with the effect the son of Hades had hoped for: lying on the floor and holding their stomach.  
"Woah, Nico, it's okay you don't like body contact, but was that really necessary?", Tim asked.   
Jon was lying on the ground. He looked like he was in pain, yet Nico realised something was wrong:  
The Demigod's defence should have at least brused a few of Jon's ribs, but if that would have been the case, he would be in way more pain. Besides, Jon should generally be in more pain. Everytime Nico had prarmticed this move, the people were in way more pain than Jon was.   
"Sorry.", he mumbled. "Spent too much time on the streets, I thought he was attacking me."  
Clark immediately had a sympathetic look on his face and everyone's confused or alarmed looks expression also softened.   
"Hey, it's okay, Jason used to be on edge too when Bruce took him in. Speaking of which were-", Clark stopped in the middle of his sentence, thought for a few seconds and then finished his sentence by saying "is Alfred the Cat? He used to be on edge all the time too, y'know?"  
"I don't know. Hunting rats I hope.", Bruce said.   
"Nico, this is Clark, this is Lois, and the boy you threw on the floor is their son Jonathan.", Damian said to Nico, then he turned around at Bruce.  
"Don't you know it's impolite to not introduce your guests father?", Damian asked accusingly.  
"Hey, it's okay.", Nico defended Bruce. He didn't really know why since he was glad someone introduced the others.   
They started to talk and Nico exuded himself. He officially was going to the toilet, but all he did was go far enough for them to not see him.  
Nico closed his eyes, concentrated for a minute or two and when he opened them again his eyes were complete dark with no white left between them.  
For Nico, everything turned dark. Well, almost everything, since the sky turned grey and people who haven't died would turn red.   
Nico concentrated on the Piknik that was happening about 200 meters in front of him.   
Bruce Wayne, Timothy Drake-Wayne, Richard Grayson, Damian Wayne and Lois Lane-Kent. Jonathan Kent was there too, but his light wasn't as bright the light from the others. Clark wasn't there at all. That would have been fine if Nico wasn't 100% percent sure he was there with the others. The environment moved in the shape of a human. The son of Hades was sure that was Clark Kent. Somehow, his power's didn't recognise him as a human.   
"What the hell?", he whispered, then went back towards the others.

"So you think he could be a threat?", Lois asked Bruce as soon as Nico was out of hearing range.  
"Did you see how he threw Jon?"  
"Yea but..."  
"Don't worry Clark, I also think Bruce is overreacting."  
"Have you all forgotten how he appeared in Gotham?", Damian asked  
"Also the security cameras don't show him at all on Friday, except at the end of the day. Apparently I was mad at him for being home all day, talked to us and then went into his room. Yet, I don't remeber any of that.", Bruce said. Everyone seemed surprised, except for Tim.  
"What? You didn't tell us?", Damian asked.  
"You really should have told them. And the League would also be interested in a boy who can dissapear without leaving a trace and alter people's memories.", Clark told Bruce.  
"Besides", his facial expression suddenly changed, "the wedding was very nice. Such a shame you couldn't make it."  
"As I said, I would have loved to go, but Nico had woken up the day prior and I wanted to be there for him when he would wake up again."  
"Hey there Nico.",Clark said as Nico was close to them again.  
"Hi Clark.", Nico replied. He seemed kind of intimidated by Clark, all though he was very good at hiding it.  
"So what were you talking ab-", Nico stopped in the middle of his sentence and turned around very fast.  
"Everyone behind me, NOW!", he ordered and pulled a coin out of his pocket. After flipping said coin, the son of Hades suddenly held a long glowing knife in his hand, about 45 cm long. No one knew what was going on, but their instincts told them to do whatever Nico tells them to do.   
"Show yourself!", he shouted into the woods.   
To Bruce's surprise, three teenage Girls came our of the woods. They were walking strangely, but aside from that, they seemed pretty normal to him.  
"Look, Girls, did your Parents not tell you it's wrong to go on other people's property. I'm sorry but I will have to-"  
Then one of the teenagers started taking and suddenly Bruce was very okay with them being in his back garden. 

"Hello Nico di Angelo.", Kelly said.   
"I was hoping to meet that hottie Percy Jackson again or his stupid Girlfriend, but you'll do too."  
Looking around, Nico realised that everyone else was being charmed by her words. Even Lois, wich was pretty interesting to Nico, Since charmspeak works best when you're potentially attracted to the person trying to charm you. That being said, he knew he wasn't immune, it was just harder for servants to at him into trance.   
"I am walking on thin ice here", Nico said. "Can you please stop exposing me?"  
"What's the problem, Nico? Afraid they may judge you for who you are?"  
Nico, who really did not feel like having "The Gay talk" with a bunch of monsters that died in the labyrinth, so he did the best thing he could have though of: he attacked.

Fighting monsters? Nico could do that in his sleep.  
Fighting monster's without using his powers? He's done worse.  
Fighting charmespeaking monsters who have charmed all of the people you have taken upon yourself to protect while also not being able to use your abilities because there could be cameras and he would have to explain himself? That was a challenge.  
As Nico threw himself towards Kelly, he did forget she was able to breathe fire. So almost being burned alive was another experience Nico could check off.  
He landed and got up immediately. As Nico turned around he realised he was too slow, Kely had already managed to cut Nico's sword arm. It was bleeding, a lot, but after quickly eating a bite of ambrosia it did bleed a lot less. Nevertheless, changing arm was the better idea.  
"Nico, what are you doing to this nice Lady?", Bruce suddenly asked. He didn't sound angry, yet Nico could tell he would be soon.  
"Dancing.", He replied, as he stuck toward, again.   
He was able to hit Kelly this time. She screamed out loud in pain. She disappeared in flames, while her sisters still were in the garden.   
"Leave these nice young women alone!", Dick shouted and got in a fighting stance.  
Nico, who was struggling with vampires who could burn him alive while not using his powers, really didn't need the people he tried to protect go against him.   
After also sticking the second one, which dissolved into dust, he tuned aron d and slapped Dick.   
"You're not yourself, snap out of it!"  
"Don't touch my Son!", Bruce yelled and attacked Nico.  
Most people start to fight with a punch from the right. To Nico's luck, Bruce was no exception. He managed to barely dodge the attack, however he didn't expect an attack from Damian and Tim.  
"Guys, snap out of it!", she said, the desperation of his voice so obvious it was a wonder he didn't scream.   
"You brought this up in yourself.", Bruce answered. His voice sounded deeper and more intimidating.  
Nico did the only logical thing he could think of: shadowtravel away.

He landed about 2 metres in front of the monster. That was no problem- he had legs after all. What did turn out to be a problem were Clark and Jonathan. Apparently being not human meant to be able to move very very fast. Clark caught Nico's hand right before it hit the last monster. His grip was so strong it almost broke Nico's arm.   
"You will like the light.", the monster said.  
"I doubt that.", Nico answered. The monster waved it's hand and Clark brought Nico forward. Nico used the one chance he saw and rammed his knife in the monster's chest.   
"You will regret this!", she shouted and brushed into flames.  
The spell wore off as soon as the monster dissapered.   
"Nico, what happens to your Nose? And your arm?", Tim asked. He was the first back himself.  
"Why am I holding you?"  
"How did we get here?"

Nico had a hot chocolate in his hand, a blanket over his shoulders and bandages over his wounds.   
"So you're telling me three teenage Girls came out if nowhere, you took one of the knives in the basket beacuse you ins we these girls and knew they were up to no good when they started mind contoling everyone except you?"  
"Well, I don't know all three, I just know their leader. She wanted my friend to be his toyboy, but he had a girlfriend. Kelly then tried to kill his girlfriend."  
"These friends are?"  
"Oh, I've lost contact to them, but we've met at my summer camp."  
"Do you know Kelly's full name? We could file a report against her."  
"No, and I don't even know if Kelly is her real first name. Oh and her friend told me I would like the light. Dich us pretty word since I hate brightness, but maybe she was just trying to be dramatic."  
The others looked alarmed, but they all told Nico she was being melodramatic.  
"I don't know if I should she'd you to school tomorrow, one day after an attack."  
Nico somehow was bothered by the idea of not going to school the next day, and then he was ashamed if him thinking that.  
"I can handle it Bruce. There were worse things happening when I lived on the streets."  
After what seemed like a short mental debate with himself, Bruce agreed to letting Nico go to school the next day.  
"You should go to bed then, after all this is a school night and getting enough sleep is pretty important, especially in your age."


	16. School starts (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I had to split this up into 2 Parts, but I just wrote so much about him being at School. 
> 
> I still hope you enjoy it.

Later that Night, there was a mission briefing in mount justice.

"This is Nico di Angelo. Some of you may of may not have heard of him through the press, but according to Batman, Nico is Bruce Wayne's new ward."

A picture of Nico was shown on the big screen behind Nightwing. It was from the same Day and It also showed Bruce and Damian.

"Some of you may recall this:", Nightwing said and showed a clip of a news show. They were talking about the strange ball of Light and the events surrounding this.

"Nico was transported into this world this way. He claims he doesn't know why he is here, and while I believe that, Batman doesn't. Also, Nico can manipulate your memory and is very good at disappearing.", Nightwing was finished and now Auqualad stepped forward.

"These are Elizabeth McKinley, Thomas Bridges, Helena Ennis, Richard Carter, Jeff Beck, Felix King and Chris Miller.", images of people in the mid 20ies to people in their early 60ies showed up on the screen. "They are all suspected to be part of a child trafficking ring. Since these people all work at different schools they know wich children wouldn't be missed.", he explained.

"Also, Jeff Beck and Chris Miller are reported to have contacts to the light and Nico di Angelo was attacked by someone who claims to be send by the light.", Nightwing added.

"Since Nico di Angelo and a majority of these people either work of go to school at Gotham Academy, that's where our main investigations will be running. Alpha squad will consist of me, Tigress with her disguise necklace, Miss M, Batgirl and Superboy, with Tigress in charge. We're going in as teachers. Beta will be Kid flash, Blue Beetle, Red Robin, Wondergirl, and Beastboy with red Robin in charge, who will also be going to GA, but as students. Delta is the rest, you will be going in to Gotham High, Gotham middle school and Hamilton High.", Kaldur announced.

"Zatana made new disguise items for Lagoon boy, Kid flash, Beastboy, Wondergirl and Batgirl. She'll be coming around tomorrow in oder to give these to you. Also the mission will only start for Alpha tomorrow, Beta and Delta will have to wait until next year's, since we couldn't get you into these schools faster. I won't be a part of this mission, but in case of emergency I'll be available via radio.", Nightwing said.  
"Any questions?"

"Who is the main target of beta squad?", Beastboy asked.

"The kid will be, since you can build up a relationship with him easier than we can." Kaldur said.

"I don't know, Nightwing. This doesn't seem right.", Red Robin said, with the rest of beta squad agreeing to him.

"I know, I though you'd say so. Just see this as us trying to protect Nico from the light, while also trying to find out why the light would want him."  
Red Robin did not look convinced, but he didn't say no to this.

"Any other questions?" 

After no one asked anything, Nightwing went on to say stuff about their school transfer, and who to contact if their parents had a problem with that, when they'd get their school uniform, and other organisational things.

At the same time in the mannor, Nico couldn't fall asleep. The harder he tried the harder it got. And the harder he tried to not think of what happened the last times he could remember visiting a school, the more he though of it. 

Nico hated to admit it, but he was sacred. He hated big crowds and loud noises could scare the living shit out of him if he wasn't expecting them. The teachers he had known had no concept of ADHD or Dyslexia and just told him to stop being lazy. But that wasn't even the worst part about going to school. 

The worst part were Teenagers. 

He himself was a teenager, but he was a teenager from over 100 years ago. Will once told him that he and Hazel have some sort of melancholy surrounding them. Back then be said that as if it was a good thing, the son of Hades was sure, Bullies would not think of it that way. He just hoped no one would find out he was gay. But knowing teenagers, they'd probably find a way. 

Every time did find some sleep he would wake up about 90 Minutes later and feel like he hadn't slept at all.

When Alfred called him the next morning in oder to wake him up, Nico was already awake. He just was glad he didn't have another nightmare.

He, Tim and Bruce had breackfast together. Damian had been kicked out of his last middle school and Dick would be working late hours, so they both were still asleep. 

"Are you exited for you first day if school?", Bruce asked.

"Nervous would describe it better, but yes that too."

"Don't worry Nico, you'll be fine.", Bruce tried to reassure him. That didn't exactly help Nico, but he liked the fact that Bruce at least made an effort.

"Tim, aren't you going to my school?"

"Well, technically yes, but the seniors have a two week internship before the winter holidays, so not at the moment."

"Alfred will drive and collect you. Dick and Damian should be home, unless they decide to do a spantanious trip, but I doubt that. Tim and I will be back between 20 past five and 25 to six.", Bruce informed Nico. Nico translated that for himself and came to the conclusion he could have the chance of being at home alone (except for Alfred) after school.

"Cool." Was all that Nico said about that.

"Have a good day Master Nico. And if any of the students try to get into a fight with you: Aim for their eyes." Alfred said as Nico left the car. He then gave Nico smile and drive off. 

Inside the school building, the son of Hades didn't even try to read the sign infront of him on of the door. He knew where he was anyways.

"Excuse me, are you Nico di Angelo?", a female voice asked. When Nico turned around he saw a girl. She was about Tim's age, had long blonde hair, brown eyes and about 5 centimetres shorter than Nico. The smile on her lips wasn't real, Nico could see that, but he wasn't about to complain.

"Yes that would be me."

"Hi, I'm Liz, I am going to show you around and help you find you classes this week. Let's start off by going through your timetable."  
She took out a sheet of paper and handed it to Nico. 

"Now, I know you're dyslexic, but my Dad said the font should help you read."  
Nico looked at the paper. The font did not make any difference, and apparently Liz could see that.

"Don't worry, it's okay. Your first subject will be English."

"Thanks.", he was and gave her a grateful smile.

"No problem, that's why I'm here. If you want to be on Time we should go now."

While going towards his classroom Nico admired the nice architecture of the building, the old decorations and the overall cleaners of the school. The kids Gotham's elite go to school in a 18th centuries castle (Well not really a castle but to Nico it seemed like one) and Nico wasn't even surprised by that.

"Hello Everyone, my Name is Miss Morse and I'll be your new English teacher. But aside from that, I'll also be your main tutor, so If you have any questions, concerns or anything along these lines, you can come to me."  
Nico's English teacher was a tall redhead woman in her late 20ies/ early 30ies. She looked nice, and seemed like one of those teachers who teach because they always liked the thought of teaching. However, when she and Nico talked before the lesson (Liz insisted on him doing so) Miss Morse insisted on him introducing himself. 

"What happened to Mr O'Reilly?", Someone infront of Nico asked.

"Mister O'Reilly had a sudden illness. I was supposed to take over after the winter holidays, but I don't have anything against starting a week early. Also next time, please raise your hand before talking."  
Someone else rose their hand.

"Yes", Miss Morse said, pointed and the student and then talked before the student had any Chance to.  
"Sorry, but do you have any nameplates you could put up?"

The sound of people checking in their Bags filled the classroom. Nico simply made one with this brand new markers.

"Mr O'Reilly said we would read a book, but we're the kids with learning disabilities, we literally can't read, so would it be a problem if we didn't read a book?" Judging by the Voice, a female asked that question. Nico didn't turn around to look at her, he was too busy making his Nameplate.

"I would say no, but it's required that freshmen read at least one book in English class. I'll try to come up with a solution in the holidays and we'll discuss this next year, okay?"

After another student asked a question about how She'll handle writing mistakes, it was Nico's turn to intuduce himself. He had to go to the from of the class, and no matter how nice Miss Morse would be to him after that, he was sure to always hold a grudge against her for that.

"Hi, I'm Nico. I used to go to a military school, but now I'm here. I'm 15 years old and I like to play Capture the flag or Mariocart." He didn't know what else to say so he just stood there. He fealt his hart racing and his hands getting sweaty, so he went to his seat and sat down again.

"How come you're not in sophomore year?", the girl who asked about reading a book wanted to know.

"Because I spend the last nine months of my life in a coma." This was part of the truth obviously, but he couldn't really say "I went to school regularly back until 1943, then I was in a magical hotel for 70 years, well for me it was like 3 months but that just how that place works. After I got out of the hotel, I went to military school in grade 5 for half a year and that's all the school experience I have." could he?

Nobody else had questions, apparently being in a cone for 9 months was not something unusual in 2065 but he heard someone say "he looks like his father took him to see a marching band as a kid." and a few kids laugh about it. 

0==[]:::::::::::::::::>

"Nico, over here!", Liz shouted. Nico saw the blonde girl sit at a table with four other girls and 2 boys. 

"Didn't I tell you, you could sit with me at lunch?"

"No you didn't.", he said as he put his tablet on the table.

"How was English?", the blonde girl asked.

"It was okay. We're doing short stories, and Miss Morse went over the basics with us. The only problem being my dyslexia and ADHD."

"Well, sounds good to me.", another boy said. He had curly dark hair and looked slightly Hispanic.

"I don't want to be rude or anything, but could you guys tell me your names?"

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry Nico.", Liz said and tried to take his hand. Nico took his drink with that hand so he didn't have to do body contact. "I should have told you. Okay, so I'm Liz, but you already know that. This is Junko-" she pointed at an Asian looking girl who gave him a bright smile "-Carol-" she pointed ar girl with brown red hair, who was busy arguing with the Hispanic guy "- who is arguing with Dylan. Next to Dylan we have Jay-" a red haired caucasian guy looked up when he heared his name and then focused on lunch again "- and these are Bella and Anna.", she pointed at two girls who literally looked like the same person.

"So, tell us Nico, how come you start at this school now?", a Jay asked.

"When was I supposed to start?"

"Well, the Wayne scholarship kids start after summer holidays or winter holidays, so you're not one of them.", he explained his point. "So how come you start now?"

"Oh, I was a civilian when Zatana was fighting Wotan, so I ended up in a cone for 9 months. I was supposed to start last year's after winter holidays, but that obviously didn't happen."  
Unlike Nico expected no one was surprised by that. Junko even went "Tell me about it. We had to move to the outskirts of town because our Penthouse would keep on getting destroyed when Batman fought someone."

"So, you're saying, you're a Wayne scholarship kids?", Liz asked very carefully as if that was an insult.

"Yes, that's what I'm saying."

Suddenly the mood at the table dropped. The clique gave each other meaningful looks and then continued to have a conversation. Nico wasn't bothered by this at first, he liked to enjoy his meal in peace but he did notice how to be other would ocationally give him side-looks.

"Guys, if you have a problem with me not having rich parents, you should tell me.", Nico clarified. Being tossed aside was something he knew and something he could deal with. Not having someone say straight in you face they hate you and rather pretend to be friends was something Nico knew, but didn't know how to deal with. 

"Oh, no it's totally fine, Nico. We were just wondering if you were the boy from the light incident?", Bella asked. Her reassuring didn't sound honest to Nico.

"Light incident?"

"Don't tell me you haven't heared of it: ball of Light shows up out of nowhere in Gotham main Park, disappears and leaves boy behind who at first is presumed to be dead, because he looks like it. No offense.", Dylan explained.

"Oh, yes, that would be me."

They all went silent again and gave him stage looks. Someone was about to say something, when the bell rung.

"Class start in 5 Minutes, better get going.", Liz said, stood up and looked at Nico like he was supposed to stand up too wich he did.


	17. School starts (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a playlist for this fix on Spotify!
> 
> It's called Taken by HK_imaginary (my Wattpad name) and you can listen to it if you want to.

The rest of they passed without anything interesting happening, until Nico's last period, where he had PE.

PE was the subject Nico was worried about the most since he had to change with a lot of other guys, who could potentially see his scars. Besides that, he also wasn't very comfortable with wearing short sleeve t-shirts, but the official Gotham Academy Sports uniform did only come with them. 

Nico was panicking a bit, when he noticed the toilet stall in next to the showers. He decided to change his pants with the others, then go into the toilet stall in oder to change his top. 

He ended up being late for class since he desperately tried to find a way to hide his arms. As he entered the gym, he noticed Gotham Academy had boys and girls do sports separately, not that that was a problem he just wasn't used to it. There was a tall teacher with black hair, but something about her seemed familiar to Nico. She was wearing normal sportsclothes, but also a black chocker with a yellow stone on it. 

"I'm Miss Taylor, I am new here. Your old sports teacher had a car accident, that's why I'm here."

"Wait, Miss Murphy is dead?", a boy with platinum blonde hair asked.

"Worried about the love of your Life?", another kid teased the first boy, who blushes and looked at the ground. 

"Terry loves Miss Murphy!", a third boy started to say.

"Wow, very grown up of you.", Miss Taylor commented. 

"No, Miss Murphy isn't dead. I am not allowed to tell you more, but it will be a while until she can return to teaching."

Nico noticed how more than just one person looked more calm after the new teacher said that, but nobody actually commented on that.

"Alright boys, there are different things we can do this year, and I figured I would let you Vote, to insure at least the majority of people enjoy what we do. 

The options are Rock-Kimbing, Jujitsu, acronbatic trampoline, Soccer, Basketball, Archery, Swordfighting with Japanese Katanas and Ice skating."

Rock climbing got third place, Archery got in second and Swordfighting won. The teacher looked happy about this.

"Okay Guys, since I didn't know what you would pick, I prepared something else for you: Capture the flag combined with Lasertag. Basically Capture the flag, but with Lasertag guns. If you're hit you're out for 30 seconds. If someone stands next to another Student when they're out only to hit them again when the 30 seconds are over, you are immature and out. There is some more material wich will be split evenly between the two teams, so you can build yourself your own fortress of solitude to hide you flag in it. I'll be the judge and I'll make sure no one gets hurt seriously."

Miss Taylor went on to say they'll be using the bigger Gym, that there will be a neutral zone and in order to win you would have to get the flag through enemy territory, through the neutral Zone and on your territory. Nico was still hung up in the fact that this school had a gym bigger than the one they were in already. 

"Who wants to be team captain?", their teacher asked. After a long time to consider what he was about to do, Nico was sure his years of experience in Capture the flag would be able to lead his team to victory, so he rose his hand.

The teacher, who was surprised to see the new kid raise his hand, chose him, and the kid she heard was very good in PE. They wouldn't vote their teams, she would count them. In the end if the Day, Nico's team had one person less than the other team, but that was alright. 

"You guys!", Nico pointed at 4 kid with wide frame who looked like they'd like to punch stuff.

"What about us?", one of them asked.

"You are going to be out main conquer squad. You four, you'll be protecting the fortress. Make sure to use distraction tactics so the others won't immediately know we're our flag is. You'll be coming with me, we're the second conquer squad. People won't notice us as people who look for the flag since we're smaller and, no offense, we don't have the frame to be in oder assault. You guys-", Nico wanted to continue to give out tasks, when he got interrupted by a guy in the main retrieval squad.

"You're going to use us as bait?"

"Well you can put it that way if you want to. I'd say you're more of a diversion of their attention. Besides, you're still a conquer squad, so you're still up to look for the flag. The rest, you three are going to guard our borders. Do not leave your post, you could be our last line in defence if they manage to get our flag. Now let's go, we've got a fortress to build."

The fortress was okay. The kids in New Rome did way more impressive things in less time, but this wasn't new Rome, so he wasn't disappointed.

The went and volrcted their "armour, so they could acraly get hit by Lasertag guns, and then they got their guns. 

"We're starting in one minute", Artemis shouted. She used something to make her voice louder, so everyone in the gym could hear her, since the bigger Gym was about the size of one and a half football fields.

Nico looked out for the hiding spot he would himself earlier. He wanted to know who Miss Taylor actually was and the best time to do that in was when everyone else was busy with capturing a flag. 

He went around their half of the field to make sure everyone was in position. The team guarding the fortress still were busy finding out what Nico meant with distraction tajtiks, so Nico explained them they simply shouldn't all stand around the flag. When he was finished with that, the match already started. 

In his hiding spot Nico checked again that no one could see him, then he started to concentrate. His surroundings turned black, people turned red and he could see the names of the students.

"Bill Trump no, Alexander Smith no, Neil Keller no, ah here we go. Miss Taylor actually is... Artemis Crook." 

Artemis was the name of Dick's friend. That's who she reminded him of! But why was she here? He never bothered asking what she made for a living, but expect being a spy there weren't many Jobs were you disguised yourself and became a fake PE teacher. And then here was the point of the disguise. Her face and hair looked really convincing and besides Nico only living in the future for one week he was pretty sure face masks would have some spot that made it clear to the trained eye that a certain person was wearing a mask. For a second, Nico thought about the possibility that Artemis disguised herself with the help of the mist, but he had no trouble looking her right in the eyes, so he decided that that was impossible. He made a note to himself that he should start doing a list on what strange things where happening around him, then he got out of his hiding spot and continued to support his team retrieving the other team's flag. 

Without putting too much effort in it Nico's team won. His teammates where pretty happy about that and they offered him to hang out sometime after school. Nico told them he'd ask when he's home, but he wasn't sure if he was actually going to do that. Nothing personal against these kids, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to get too attached to them. After all, he was planning on going back to Will and Fixing everything.


	18. Loneliness and a weird Dream

Before Nico noticed, the week had passed. 

It was Friday night and he looked at his List of suspicious people, about to add who told everyone she was his computer science teacher Elisabeth Posy, when in reality she was Dick's Girlfriend Barbara Gordon. 

The list also included a weird Human-like person by the Name of Kaldur'Ahm who was posing as Steven Roche, their Atlantian teacher because that apparently is a thing in the future. 

His English and cooking teacher also wasn't human. Nico wasn't able to find out her real name, since this species wasn't human-like. It was a surprise to Nico that that was important when soul searching, but when he thought about it it made at least a small amount of sense to him. 

Dick was part of it too. He was Nico's History and Politics teacher.

And then there of course where Artemis as his PE teacher, the half-Human Jonathan Kent and the not-human, Clark Kent. 

While he really wanted to believe they had no bad intetions, Nico still started to trust all of these people a bit less and by expansion everyone in the mannor a bit less, all though he didn't even know if they where part in this. It was obvious they where hiding something from him, and something told Nico Dick and a few people Dick knew preteing to be teachers had something to do with it all. 

"I'll ask Annabeth about it in he morning.", he thought, then he remembered that that wasn't possible, at least not without exposing the gods to the mortal world and by extension himself. All of a sudden, Nico fealt this incredible sadness in himself, like always when he thought about his friends. He wasn't able to say goodbye to Will and the others, Annabeth died because of him and then there was Percy. Percy seemed like he was doing good on his own, until Nico came around to tear open some old wounds. Nico would have liked to see them all again, he would have liked to be able to say goodbye to them, he would have liked to be back in Camp Half-Blood, in 2014, when everyone is alive and he didn't have to hide so much about him away. Nico fealt like crying and cuddling with Will. Right that moment, he just wanted everything to go back to like it used to be.

Weren't there enough Half-Bloods out there the gods could have asked to do stuff for them in this time? Enough kids like Annabeth or Jason, who have spend their whole live at Camp and who are eagerly awaiting their first quest. Why could the gods not pick them? Why did it have to be him? 

Nico thought about the Time his father told him about his other children, how they usually ended up lonely, insane, or both and how Hades had hoped Nico could be different. 

"If that was true why send me here? Or let whoever it was that and me here send me here? Why not stop them?", Nico whispered. Questions to his father, although Nico had doubts if he would even hear him, yet alone listen. He didn't expect an answer and he didn't get one. 

Nico simply went to bed, tears in his eyes, feeling as lonely as he hadn't in a long time.

☾︎༒︎❣︎༒︎☽︎

In his dreams, Nico was jumping from rooftop to rooftop, next to people he recognised from the news as Nightwing and Red Hood. They stopped on a very high one after using their grappling hooks to get up there, then Nightwing turned around and looked at Nico.

"Are you sure this a good idea?"

"I didn't hear anyone suggest anything better, so yes.", Nico heared himself answer. His voice sounded familiar and he wanted to look at his body to see who he was. Unfortunately, he also had no control over his body.

"And are you sure this is going to work?"

"In theory it should."

"What do you mean in theory?", Nightwing asked and Nico realised he also somehow knew Nightwing's Voice.

"The probability of this going right is 27.34% wich is way better than 0."

"Hold on, Ti-", Nightwing said and Nico was sure there was some Panik in his voice. He was interrupted by the Red Hood who pushed him off the rooftop.

"You won't die, dildo!", he shouted after him, then he turned around to Nico.

"Replacement, if I die make sure the demon doesn't get any of my stuff, okay?"

Nico saw himself holding a thump up, then he sat down and started to type something into a computer. When he looked up again, Red Hood also wasn't standing in the rooftop anymore. He switched something in his ear on and he could hear Nightwing arguing with the Red Hood.

"I swear to god Hood, if you do something like that again, I will kill you."

"Sure thing Dildo, sure thing."

Nico wanted to turn the thing in his ear off but the person whose body he was in didn't feel like doing that. He instead continued to type something into the computer. After a short time of silence and a bit of static a new voice poped up in his ear.

"Red Robin, report on the current mission process."

"Sure thing B. Hood and Wing are in and following the route I mapped out for them. Parachuting off the building apparently really doesn't get detected by their security system. So far only minor inconveniences wich where no problem for them."

"If you need reinforcements you should contact Batgirl first, she has the shortest way to you."

"Anything else?"

"No. We'll talk again in the cave.", the other voice said then there was static again, followed by some silence wich didn't last long.

"Red do you hear me?", Nightwing asked. His voice was higher pitched than usualy and he sounded like he was out of breath.

"Yea, s'up?"

"You need to get off that roof top right now, the his a bomb right underneath you."

Nico reacted fast. He took his gripping hook and was ready to shoot it to the next highest building, when he rembered that he was on top of one of the tallest buildings in the city. Of course, his next reaction was to run towards the edge of the roof, but it was to late and the floor beneath him exploded.

Nico woke up. There was something familiar about these people, but he couldn't put his finger on what exactly. 

He wanted to go back to sleep, but when he heared someone in the mannor, he decided it was best to check that out first and then go back to sleep.

Equipped with Thaila's silver dagger, Nico left his room in order to find out if there was someone in the mannor, who shouldn't be there.

Hiding in the shadows, Nico went down the corridor and towards the person who was making the noises. The person sounded like someone wounded in battle, who barely made it into the infirmary on their own. Nico could already see Will's face and hear his voice when asking that person what in Hades they where thinking, when doing something that could easily have gotten them killed.

But this wasn't camp Half-blood and there was no Will and no other Child of Apollo to help this wounded person. 

As Nico turned around to see who it was, he was surpised see that it was Tim.

Tim looked tired. Not his usual tired, but that kind of tired Nico sometimes saw in people who died when fighting. He looked older than he actually was, and somehow reminded Nico of his own reflection, wich really wasn't a good sign. Tim wasn't on his own, wich didn't surprise Nico, since Tim didn't look like he was able to walk on his own. Tim was being supported by Dick and Alfred, who each had one of Tim's arms over their shoulders, and who where talking to each other.

"He really needs to eat more. He feels so light I am afraid to break him.", Dick said.

"You know I can still hear you?", Tim answered. He wanted to sound annoyed but his voice was weak, so it sounded more like nice reminder.

"Yea, Timbo, we know.", Dick said then he talked to Alfred again.

"How are we supposed to cover that up?"

"I don't know Master Dick. With a bit of Luck painkillers will do, but this quite frankly does not look like they will."

Nico didn't do anything, he was still too shocked to see Tim took like that. He didn't come out of his hiding place, but he followed the others. He wanted to know why a richkid who seemed like he had some serious trauma and should sleep more had been beaten up like this.

He followed them into Tim's room, wich was locked originally, but Dick cracked the lock in under 10 seconds. If that happened in any situation other than this, Nico would have seriously asked himself if Dick either was kid of Hermes or somehow knows one of them. In Tim's room, they layed him down on his bed and Alfred preceded to roll Tim's clothes up, revealing his stomach and a bit of his chest. Tim had scars, a lot of them. While Nico had more, Tim defnetly had more than Will and it looked like he was going to get a few additions. There also where a bunch of freshly stitched wounds, three of them had already opened again, together with a few plasters and bandages.

"Master Dick, I can handle this best on my own. Will you go back down and make sure Master Bruce has calmed himself down?"

Dick took a second to respond as he was staring at Tim's wounds, then he answered "Sure" and left the room. 

While Nico really wanted to know what the story was with Bruce, he somehow had the feeling he should stay by Tim's side. Just in case Thanatos decided to show up, so that Nico could look him in the eyes and tell him to Fuck off.

Nico didn't really know how long he was standing in Tim's room but he could hear a few Birds singing as he entered his room. Alfred had left about half an hour ago, but Nico wanted to make sure Tim would live through the night. He tried to make sense of all the events surrounding that Night but the best thing he could so is write it all down and hope so see if it made any sense later in his life. 

To Nico's luck, he fell asleep right after he layed down.


	19. Wayne Enterprises Charity Gala

"Rise and shine Master Nico.", Alfred said the next morning, when he pulled the heavy curtains away from the window. It made absolutely no difference, it was too dark outside. Alfred looked tired, and it made Nico wonder when he ever seen anyone in the family display tiredness expect Tim.

Then, Nico looked Alfred in the eyes, then he pulled his blanket up and turned to the other side of the bed. 

"C'mon, Master Nico. I don't want to say it again."

"5 more minutes." Nico answered and closed his eyes.

"You said that 15 minutes ago. Now come on, get up, or I'll have to take away you blanket."

Nico glared at Alfred. 

"You wouldn't."

"Oh yes, I would absolutely, now get up or I'll have to turn my threats into reality."

Nico grunted, sat up straight and yawned.

"Christmas is next week, that means the famous Wayne Enterprises Chistams Charity Gala today.", Alfred said. 

"And you decide to tell me this now? Are you serious?"

"It was Master Bruce's wish to only tell you this morning."

Nico looked up into the Butler's eyes and looked like he was about to say something important.

"Yes?", Alfred asked.

"What time is it?", he asked as he moved towards the side of his bed.

"It's 9:27 Master Nico. Breakfast starts in 3 minutes. I suggest you don't miss it again." Then Alfred left the room.

At breakfast Nico glared at Bruce. He wanted him to know he wasn't happy with Bruce only telling him about the gala now. Nico also looked around if Tim was anywhere to be seen, wich he wasn't. Bruce on the other hand was busy with his phone. He only noticed Nico when he cleared his through. 

"Nico, good morning. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, I did.", this was a lie, obviously but something told Nico that he shouldn't let Bruce know that he knew about Tim.

"So, this will be you first Charity Gala-", Bruce started but was interrupted by Nico.

"This is my first gala, period."

"Yes, I know. Please do me a favour and stick to Dick, he's a people's pleaser and will do a good job at intuducing you and guiding you around. Avoid journalists, unless Dick or me are with you. Almost all of them are nasty people and some of them would even kill, just to be the first one to get an interview with you, the newest addition to the Wayne family. If anyone asks, you're friends with Tim and he's invited you to the gala. Got everything so far?"

"Stick to Dick, don't talk to journalists, Tim invited me. Wherr is he by the way?"

"He had a bad case of food poisons last night, so he's still in bed. We don't know if he'll be able to actually be at the Gala.", Alfred said, then he left the room after being dismissed by Bruce.

"Why would a friend if Tim's be at a Gala Tim isn't attending?"

"Then say you're friends with both Dick and Tim.", Bruce said.

"Well okay then."

"Anyways, we have a stylist, well two actually, their Names are Jessica and Marvin. They'll be here 2 hours before the Gala starts. They won't do too much, they'll simply make sure you look presentable at the gala. Please don't argue too much with them.", Bruce said, but Nico had the feeling the last sentence was directed at Damian.

"If they tell you to not take a knife or your cat to the Gala, then I support that and you don't need to start a discussion about that."

"I wasn't planning on doing that but thanks for the info.", Nico answered. 

"I am sorry to interrupt.", Alfred said as he entered the room. "But the suits are here now. You should probably try them on, in case they don't fit."

Nico, who wasn't planning on eating more than the half of an apple he had already eaten stood up.

"I could go right now."

"Then follow me."

Needless to say, the suits did fit him perfectly. And also needless to say that the all back 3 piece suit made him appear super pale, and he wasn't sure if he liked that. He already looked like a corpse most of the time, and with that suit he looked like a well dresses Zombie. No offense at Zombies, some of his best friends were Zombies, but he still didn't want to look like them. And apparently he wasn't the only one thinking so.

"Jason, is that you?", Dick joklinly asked when Nico entered the Dining room to show his suit. Nico had to think for a while to remember who Jason was, then he went "Ha ha ha."

Then Nico turned and looked at Bruce.

"I can still go in this right?"

Bruce looked torn. He already heared some people rumor he mistreats his kids, he didn't want anyone thinking he isn't giving Nico enough food, or, well, whatever people need in order to not look like a corpse.

"I think I'll leave the decision to Jessica and Marvin. How about-", he was about to say something when his phone rang.

"This is work and if they ring me it must be important. Sorry Boys, See you on the Gala the latest.", he said, stood up.

Nico looked at the others, who seemed to think of this as normal behaviour, so Nico decided to not question it.

"Dick, would you mind filling Nico in on the rest of the Gala stuff?", Bruce asked and left the room right before Dick could say anything.

"Sure thing Dad, thanks for asking if I didn't have anything to do before the Gala starts."

Later in the Day, Dick had told him he had no idea what Bruce wanted him to tell Nico, the 15 year old was looking for Dick again. He was bored and wanted to do a bit more on the Trapeze in order to pass some time. However, he wasn't able to find Dick. While being sure Dick was in the mannor, he didn't know how to context him. Ringing him was impossible since Nico don't want to risk another attack after want happened on Sunday. And sending ghosts to do his work also wouldn't work since Nico knew how to let undead warriors find some in order to harm them, but not simply for the sake of finding them. He of course could ask Alfred, but he also didn't know where Alfred was, so that was that.

While searching for Dick, Nico stumbled across something that looked like a music room. It had a grand piano, two Violins and a Cello. Nico knew Bruce wanted his kids to play one instrument and do one sport, so he guessed this was where they practiced the instruments. He sat down at the piano to do a bit for fun, but he somehow noticed his seat being a in a too high position for him. After lowering it for just a bit, he knew it was just right for him so he at down. Unsure of what to do, he just sat there for a bit, until he played a key. Then he played another key, and another. Before he knew what was happening, he played a melody similar to Twinkle Twinkle little star, just a way more advanced version of that. He didn't know how he knew how to play piano or where his sudden talent came from. As he was wondering how he could play so good, the suddenly was a sound behind him. Nico turned around immediately, only to see one book from the bookshelf stand out. Nico got up in order to push it in again, but as he did so the whole bookshelf moved. 

"What in Tartarus?" 

Nico took a few steps back and opened the bookshelf like it was a door. There was a dark tunnel right in front him and of course he went inside. 

Nico wasn't as good with Tunnels as Hazel, but upon entering he knew there was a larger cave further down the tunnel. He took one step toward and almost jumped out of his skin when a light went on next to him. He could see the ground now and he knew people used this way a lot, since there was no dust to be seen anywhere. He wanted to go down further, when he heared someone, probably Damian calling his name. He turned around, left the tunnel and closed the bookshelf behind him, the second before Samian entered the room.

"There you are. The stylist are here and they said they wanted to start with you."

"Really?" Nico pointed at his chest. "Me? That's weird."

"I thought so too, but that's what I was told."

Nico turned around and left the room. He didn't notice Damian turning off the silent alarm of the Batcave. There was no intruder, at least not yet.

The rest of the time passed too fast for Nico's liking, and he now saw himself sitting in a limousine with Bruce, Damian, Dick and Tim. Tim looked very pale, and Nico was sure he shouldn't be going on the Gala, but since hwasnt the one deciding that he kept his mouth shut. 

"So, Tim any better yet?"

Tim nodded but then told Nico he wouldn't be staying long.

"The future CEO of Wayne Enterprises can't not show up because of food poisoning.", he then said. 

Before Nico could say how coming still was a stupid idea, he was asked if he was nervous by Bruce.

"No, not really. But the crowd will change that I think.". After Nico said that, he remembered he never told them about his fear of big crowds. 

"I never told you, but I really don't like big crowds."

The only one surprised was Nico when he saw the other looked like they where expecting this.

"Don't worry, we'll intuduce you to a few people and if you want to you can sit in a corner all night after that.", Dick said and gave Nico a reassuring smile. 

As they arrived at the Gala they immediately where the centre of attention. People where especially interested in Nico, he was a new face after all. 

"Mister Wayne!", the reporters shouted, but Nico could also her a lot of "Mister Grayson!" or " Mister Drake!" calls. 

Bruce answered one of the reporters, who of course asked who Nico was.

"The new kid is Nico. He is friends with Tim and Dick." 

Everyone except Nico then answered a few questions, until the next people arrived and they went inside.

To say Nico was impressed was an understatement. They where in a Hotel Bruce one brought and they whole top floor was reserved for this Gala. The floor was completely made of major, and if there ever where cracks in the floor, they where fixed with gold. The chandeliers where also made of Gold, as was almost everything else that normally should have been made from another metal. Despite Nico knowing all of this was simply made to display how wealthy the Waynes where, the room still had character. 

"So this is the Nico you have been talking 'bout, Bruce?", a man with blonde hair and a moustache asked. Bruce smiled and they shook hands.

"Nico this is Olliver Queen, a friend of mine. Oliver, this is Nico." 

"Kid, your hands are freezing, are you alright?", he asked after they also shook hands.

"Yea, my hands are always cold.", Nico said. He was used to this question, but he still disliked it.

"Such a shame Diana couldn't be here.", Oliver said. Nico didn't know what to answer, then he realised that that statement wasn't directed at him.

"I know. But when there is something going on in Paris, then there is something in Paris."

The two started to talk and Nico didn't know what to do. He looked at Dick who was happy to get him out of that situation. 

"Let's intuduce you to a few people.", He said, took Tim with him and they went right into the crowd.

"The Kents you've met on Sunday couldn't make it but here are some more of Bruce's Friends.", Dick said right before they tapped on the shoulder of a black man.

"Nico this is Lucius Fox. He's a business manager at Wanyne Inc. and a good friend of ours."

"I'm happy to meet you.", he said and smiled.

"Me too, sir." They shook hands and Nico again got asked if he was okay since his hand where so cold. After Nico assured him he was fine, he didn't really know what to say, but he was polite when answering questions about mundane things like school and his hobbies.

After a few minutes Mr. Fox excused himself and Dick pulled Nico to the next important adult. 

This went on for quite a while, Tim decided to go home after Nico meet 5th person, until Nico told Dick he was pretty tired of meeting new people and that he needed a break. Dick immediately understood and they went looking for Damian, who they left at a Table. While navigating through the crowd Nico noticed a Voice that sounded somewhat familiar. He turned around and saw the back of a woman in her mid 60ies.

"Who is that?", he asked and pointed at the woman.

"Oh, we don't really get along with these people. They may be-"

But Nico stopped listening. He went straight in to the crowd and tapped on the back of the woman.

She turned around and while she turned around, she already spoke.

"I'm sorry Kids, but I really don't have the time to- Nico... is that you?", the redhead asked. She looked shocked and relived at the same time. Nico nodded.

"Hi Rachel.", he said with a big smile in his face.


	20. Chapter 20

The people Rachel was talking to looked pretty confused and so did Dick and Damian, but neither Nico or Rachel cared. She opened her arms and Nico almost fell into them. As they hugged Nico realised he was crying and he could her Rachel sobbing too.

"Let's talk somewhere private.", Nico whispered in her ear after at least a minute had passed. 

"Good idea."

"Gentlemen, if you'll excuse me.", she said, took Nico's arm and they headed towards the elevator.

"What just happened?", Dick asked.

"Seems like egocentric Elisabeth also goes by her first name Rachel.", Damian said.

"Really? You're surprised by that?", Dick said and went off to find Bruce, in order to tell him about the recent turn of events. 

"Where are we going Rachel?", Nico asked in the lift.

"I got the suite two floors below this one. I still live in New York, but I don't own any property here. After all and buying property in Gotham really means investing in something that is going to break."

Nico knew it probably wasn't the best idea to start with the questions in the lift but he didn't care.

"What happened Rachel? Between you and Percy? He didn't even mention you when talking about what happened to the others. And what about you? I thought you'd do anything in your power to avoid ending like this? Like your father who I remind you was part of the reasons pan died."

"It's complicated.", she said.

"As if that would answer any of my questions. Everything right now is complicated.", Nico couldn't help but feel angry. He understood that Percy couldn't take him in now that he was tied to Camp for the rest of his life, but Rachel was apparently in a position to take him in so why didn't she? Of course Rachel seemed just as surprised as he was when they saw each other, and he knew it wasn't fair on Rachel to expect her to take him on like Bruce did, but he didn't care. Nico fealt let down by everyone he used to know, he realised that Now, and Rachel was the first person to take that out on.

Nico was about to say something, when the lift arrived. They fell what as Rachel got out her key card, since Nico could see a camera looking right at them.

In Rachel's suite, Rachel started to explain.  
"Nico, I think you jumped to conclusions. Just beacuse I was with wealthy people doesn't mean I'm acting like them. Dare Enterprises makes 90% of its profits on projects that help the environment or people in need. And what happened between me and Percy is that about 7 years after Annabeth died, Percy would become Immortal in the next year, Percy and I had a falling out. I don't know what got into him, I think he did always accuse me, and also kinda you, for being responsible for Annabeth's death. You whereby there for him to be angry at so I was his next choice. Well anyways, word of Frank and Hazel's death had just reached us, and Percy was devastated. Frank and Hazel where the ones who really helped him deal with Annabeth's death."

"Any how exactly is their death your fault?", Nico asked. He had calmed himself down a bit, but not much.

"I gave them a prophecy."

"So Percy did the same thing as my Dad? Blame the person carrying the oracle because he couldn't blame the oracle itself?"

"Something along those lines. But Nico, the past is in the past, all I want to know right now is where have you been? What happened to you? How are you still alive?"

"Okay, okay okay, here we go", Nico said. He still wanted to know more about her and Percy fighting, but he understood that she wanted to know what happened to him. He actually was surprised Rachel had waited this long to ask. "Something send me into the future. Dad said the Gods had something to do with that but to be honest with you: I don't think so. To me it feels like 2 weeks ago when I last was at Camp, but that obviously isn't the case. A few kids at School called it the light incident, but-"

"That was you?", she asked in utter disbelief.

"Well, kind of. I travel through shadows not through light, but it defnetly drained my power. Some rumours say Batman, who found me, couldn't get a physical grip on me, and that happened a lot when I was travelling with Reyna and Hedge. I never made the decision to be here and I can't actually travel trough time, so I don't know what happened here. Then I was in a coma for 9 months and when I woke up I was taken in by Bruce Wayne."

"Wait what? How does he treat you?" She asked and Nico could have sworn there was concern in her voice.

"He treats me good although he isn't in the mannor a lot. Why?"

"Nico what I'm about yo tell you needs to stay between the two of us but there is a rumour that Bruce Wayne abuses his kids."

Nico laughed but stopped when he saw how serious Rachel was about it.

"He is good to you now because that's how he does his thing. He is nice to the kid he's about to adopt, gains their trust and whatnot, and when they trust him he already has gotten away with it."

"Rachel that's ridiculous. Bruce would never hurt a child."

"Do you never see Damian or Tim with bruises on their arms without any explanation for where they came from? Did you never see them being frightened of even afraid of Bruce?"

When Nico thought about it there where a lot of bruises on the three Wayne brothers. And didn't Alfred tell Dick to "go see if Bruce had calmed himself down"? Was Bruce the reason Tim had nightmares? Maybe that is why Tim didn't talk about them with Bruce, maybe that's why he isn't in therapy. 

"Now that you say it...", he said.

"The only proof we have is the autopsy report on Jason Todd. It got taken down but if you want to look it up you will find it.", she said and gave Nico her phone. It showed letters, Latin letters, he was sure of that, but he couldn't actually read it. He gave it back to her.

"Dyslexia, remember?"

"Oh, yea, sorry. Basically it says that Jason Todd had been beaten up badly and then died in an explosion. His body also shows heavy scaring, bruising and signs of several broken bones that healed over the time. It is estimated that his wounds date back to about half a year after Bruce Wayne took him in."

To Nico all of this wounded surreal. But there was evidence, well maybe not evidence more like indicators showing that Bruce Wayne abuses his kids. Would Bruce actually do that? No that would be impossible. Or was it?  
"C'mon, I'm guessing you're not his legal ward yet. With a bit of luck and some good lawyers I could get custody of you.", she said and already opened the contacts app in her phone.

"Rachel wait!", Nico said.

"I don't know why, but I feel like Dad and the fates want me to stay with Bruce. Besides, I can collect evidence on him and if he actually abuses Damian, Dick, and Tim we can put him behind bars." Nico wasn't sure if he would actually do that. He would probably just look out for signs, after all he wasn't completely convinced Bruce actually meant harm.

Rachel looked like she didn't like that idea.   
"You'll promise that you get out of there as soon as he even shows a sign that he wants to hit you, okay?", she asked.

"I promise Rachel."

She took his hand like a Bianca used to, and they just looked at each other for a while.  
"Would you mind filling me in on history?", he asked after a few minutes. He did need to know what happened in the future, or well the past, in order to pass as a kid form this time.

Rachel smiled. "Sure. You should feel lucky you've missed 2017-2022. Not fun years to be around.", she said.

"Why?"

Rachel was about to tell him about Covid 19 and other disaters, when but Bruce stormed into the suite. 

"Miss Dare, didn't I tell you to stay away from my children?", he asked. He sounded fed-up, as if this wasn't the first time something like this happened.

"I would like to know-", Rachel started to say but Nico could see this was going nowhere.  
"Bruce, it's okay. I know her from when I was living on the streets. She wanted to know how I am here after disappearing 10 months ago."

"I wasn't aware he was one of yours since you told the press something else.", she was saying passive aggressive wich you wouldn't know unless you knew her.

"If that's true then I apologise, but Nico you still need to come with me. I don't want you to not be in the room of the gala, okay?" Bruce actually seemed concerned about Nico, and he couldn't come up with an argument to stay no, so he stood up and got ready to leave.

Rachel stood up too, since there now was no reason for her to stay in her room and followed them.

After an awkward elevator ride, Nico and Rachel hugged again. Rachel then went back to the business men and Nico went back to Dick, since everything they could have talked about would just raise suspicion.

Dick was having a blast with the people Nico already knew from the movie night, who for some reason where invited to this Gala and Damian was peting Alfred the cat, although Nico had no idea how he managed to take the cat with him to the Gala without anyone noticing. 

Nico was about to ask if he could go home, when a loud bang immediately send him into his fighting stance. He looked around in order to find where the explosion came from and saw fire and a few weird looking people. One of them looked like a clown, Nico recalled a news reporter talking about him but forgot his name, the other one looked like a scarecrow, his name creatively was scarecrow, and then there was a guy who looked like a pile of mud, probably clayface.   
"Bruce Wayne!", the clown guys shouted. "I have a gift for you!" 

Bruce didn't react at first, but then the clown took a random person from the crowd and shoot them.

"Joker stop.", Bruce said. "I'm here."

The Joker smiled even more and gave Bruce a large piece of Cardboard that was shaped like a coupon. Nico wasn't close to the whole scene so he couldn't exactly read what it said.   
"An expired coupon for new parents. How funny.", he said. Joker laughed like a maniac, pressed a button and the coupon exploded.

"C'mon Nico, his way.", Damian said and grabbed his arm without giving him chance to protest. The Wayne kids and a lot of other people ran down the emergency exit that apparently was there all along and just slipped past Nico. They tired to stay together, but with the sheer amount of people pushing them, it was almost inevitable that they got separated.


	21. Chapter Twenty-one: Fighting a Chimaera

Now in the streets of Gotham, Nico couldn't find Damian or Dick anywhere. It was strange, after all they took the same exit, but way more strange things had happened to him in his life, so he didn't even question it. Rachel was nowhere to be found, but Nico didn't even know if she took the same exit, yet alone made it out. 

Nico didn't know what to do. His plan of action would be to get back to the mannor, but he didn't take his phone, after all why should he, he would have been with Bruce all the time, and without his phone he had no way of contacting Alfred or anyone else. Of course Iris messages still where a thing, but he would have to think of a way to explain why there was an image of him floating in front of Alfred, and it was the same story with shadowtravel, because last time he checked Mortals had no way of stepping into the shadows at one place and then out of them somewhere else.

He decided it was best to ask someone for help. Not that he liked that idea, but he didn't know what else to do.

"Excuse me, Madam.", he asked a random woman. Although Nico looked just like a rich kid, at least in his opinion, the woman still ignored him.

"Excuse me?", still no answer. He decided the problem was with him and not the woman, so he went to ask someone else. This, or something similar like "I don't have any money, so miss off." happened to him a few times. Nico's logical conclusion was, that the problem was with the rich people of Gotham, not him. Nico's plan now was to go look for the closest police station and ask them to call Bruce.

Unfortualy, Nico was attacked just around the next corner. Not by any human, but by 3 Hellhounds. Nico knew what he had to do and he hated it, because every Hellhound reminded him of Mrs O'Leary or Ceberus, who he sometimes played with. Nico decided it was best for him to shadowtravel away, since there was nobody around who could see him. Just closer to the next police station. 

The alley he landed in was even darker, and very certainly not close to any police station. Nico didn't know where he was at all, and after walking around the area, trying to find out where he was for about 30 Minutes he gave up. The only thing he was sure about, was the fact that he still was in Gotham. Nico knew that because he had seen quite a few places, but no city was more disgusting and filthy than Gotham, wich made him wonder why people even lived there.

He was tired, shadowtravel had done it's part on him, so he sat down somewhere where it wasn't completely disgusting to sit. Nico was debating on wether to just shadowtravel to the mannor or if he should stay where he was and wait for someone to find hum, when he fealt someone moving in the shadows. At first the son of Hades didn't think too much of it, but when he heared something resembling a gun being fired, he knew he was under Attack. 

Nico reacted slower than normally, what we still faster than most people, and barely managed to dodge a dart wich he was sure was filled with something to knock him out. Nico twisted his skull ring, wich transformed into his sword and looked in the direction the dart came from. For a very scary second he didn't know where his attacker was, then he fealt the person moving and now standing right behind him. The son of Hades got stabbed just above his Liver, wich miraculously only turned out to be a flesh wound. He turned around, but was too slow to get a grip on his attacker. Nico wasn't sure if a monster was attacking him or a human, since he didn't know about stealthy monsters, nor did he know about humans being able to avoid his detection. 

"Who are you?", he asked. Of course he didn't get an answer, but Nico managed to get a glance at him. His attacker was a tall man who was carrying one Katana on his back, a gun in a holster and holding a gun in the one hand and a Katana in the other. He was wearing a black and orange mask and some sort of armour wich was mainly black with some orange here and there. 

Another k.o. dart was fired his way, but Nico again managed to not get hit, this time by deflecting the dart with the dull side of his sword. Nico hoped his Attacker would attack him with his katana, since he could deal with that better than being shot at. The person he was fighting against attacked again, honerable with his blade this time. He was behind Nico, who had prepared himself and managed to parry the attack. Although his Attacker clearly was unimpressed, Nico was staring to feel like he could win this. The Attacker had an easier solution and simply fired another dart at Nico. The move came unexpected and over such a close range Nico had no time to dodge or deflect the dart. The dart hit his thigh wich hurt a lot more than getting a flu shot. Nico could feel himself becoming weaker by the second, his vision got blurry and he only now realised, how much his stab wound and his thigh hurt. He managed to pull the dart out of his thigh, something Will had told him to do a few months ago, so that when he fell he wouldn't fall on the dart and damage his leg even more.

In a sudden burst of strength, the son of Hades shadowtraveled away. He stepped out of the shadows at his new destination and fell. Nico was unconscious before he even hit the ground. 

☽︎☀︎︎☾︎

After fighting the Joker, Sacrecrow and Clayface the Batfamily was stitched up by Alfred and then they all went to bed. Everyone except Bruce, who wanted to check in on Nico and talk to him about what happened. After all this should have been his first experience with Rogue criminals crashing a party. But Bruce didn't find Nico in his room. All he did find was his phone and a drinking bottle, together with a notebook that had notes in an alphabet unfamiliar to Bruce, in a Language unfamiliar to Bruce. He could have taken it to the Batcave and checked what it said, but Burce respected Nico's privacy and was sure that if anything on this Notebook was his business, he would know eventually. 

At first Bruce wasn't too worried about Nico not being in his room, he probably just as so the Garden, or somewhere else to calm his mind after experiencing such an event. He went to his private study room, a place where he could get some piece and quiet from the boys wich where only allowed in if he gave them permission. Bruce didn't come here often, most if the work was either done at Wayne Enterprises or by Lucius, but from time to time, either when someone was stick or he just didn't want to leave the mannor for the day, he did actually use this room. He could of course use the Batcave, but he fealt like his private study room was the best place for him to be right now.

Bruce checked the security cameras and saw Nico leaving with the rest of them. "So far so good", he thought. Bruce skipped the video footage up until the time of the attack. He had the footage run at 5x speed, waiting for Alfred to leave or Nico to comeback on his own. Needless to say that didn't happen.   
Bruce, who was tired, just told himself he missed him coming home and had to watch again. After Nico didn't come home the second time he watched, and again after Nico still wasn't there the third time, Bruce gave up. 

He wanted to tell the others about Nico not being home, but he didn't want to demand more from them after that fight escalated more than those type of fights usually do. Since Bruce didn't know how to make his own coffee he stole one of Tim's out of the fridge and went into the Batcave, in order to find out what happened to Nico. 

☽︎☀︎︎☾︎

The son of Hades dreamt about the guy he fought against and a few teenage heros showing up to beat him up, wich didn't go exactly as they hoped it would. Nico didn't know how the fight ended, he woke up before that, but what he was sure of was one of the teenagers looking like Cassie, Tim's "Friend".   
He opened his eyes and saw that he was in some kind of tent. Nico only now noticed that he was lying on some kind of field bed and the there was a blanked on top of him. He sat up and saw that his flesh wound looked a couple of days old. 

He stepped on what seemed to be dead grass and a few dead Buggs, then he went out of the tent. 

The first thing he was where a couple of girls with braided hair, some of them had an additional hairband to keep hair out of their faces. The Jackets they wore where familiar to Nico and he didn't like what he realised.

"The hunters of Artemis, great." 

Upon seeing him two girls ran to a particularly big tent. The others just stated at him. The youngest one was about 8, the oldest maybe 13. They seemed so much younger and less intimidating than when he first met him, but he still didn't really like to be around them. He was about to ask them what day it was, when five people left the tent: the two girls he saw rum in, Thalia, Reyna and Artemis herself. 

Nico didn't know how to react, after all he should kneel down but he didn't want to kneel down to the goddess who was responsible for his sister's death. Ended up bowing, wich seemed to be the best solution.

"Good morning, Demigod.", she said.

"Good morning M'lady, Lieutenant, Preator and hunresses. How can I thank you for taking me in?"

"All I want is a favour in return. I don't know what yet, but I'll tell you when the time comes."

Nico did not like the Idea of moving a good a favour, but there wasn't much he could do about it. After agreeing to her offer, Artemis left together with the two girls who came to get him. 

"I'm sure you three have something to discuss and we'll leave you too it.", she said before she left. 

☽︎☀︎︎☾︎

Reyna looked different from when Nico saw her last. Reyna wasn't wearing a Huntress' Jacked, she was wearing a Sweater in a colour similar to her old predator toga. She had a normal pair of Jeans on and a pair of combat boots that looked like it was through a lot. Her hair was shorter by a couple of inches, and she seemed happier than when he last saw her. The most unexpected stage was the ring she had on her left hand, wich looked similar to one Thalia was wearing. 

"You're really alive, huh?", Thalia said.

"Don't worry, Percy told us.", Reyna told him.

"Percy forgot to mention that you're with the hunters now.", Nico said, a hint of resentment in his voice.  
"So anyways, what did I miss?"

"A global Pandemic, the Koalas going nearly extinct because of Wildfires, a lot of Celebrities dying, a lot of good movies, a lot of Star Wars movies that are mediocre at best, America almost tuning into a dictatorship, a bunch of teens taking control over the government and making a lot of changes in regards of climate change, then there almost was a civil war, but other than that not much.", Thalia said

Nico needed some time to process all of the things that where just thrown at him and to sort his thoughts, but Reyna wouldn't let him.

"Sparkles, you forgot the most important part! Me and Thalia are in a relationship."  
Nico was surprised and also a bit confused.

"Isn't Artemis against that?"

"Nope. She has something against Sexual love, but since we're both asexual, that's no problem."

"Well, I'm happy for you."

They talked a bit longer, then Thalia said they were hunting a Chimaera and asked him to join them. She told him not to worry about Artemis' approval, since she already had gotten that, and that because of a few Capture the flag games with Percy the hunters trusted men and boys a bit more than they used to.

Nico took the offer and told them to bring on the monsters, although he still wasn't happy about working with the people who took his sister away from him. He wanted to spend more time with Thalia and Reyna and going hunting for monster wasn't the worst idea, since he was a bit out of shape after his 9 months coma. 

☽︎☀︎︎☾︎

After preparing for the hunt, wich meant showing the dogs and wolves Nico wasn't a threat, and Nico shooting with a bow and arrow and not being very good at it, but not as miserable as Percy, Nico found out Artemis would also be hunting with them. He thought that was a bit weird, but he decided to not question it. 

Nico was so focused on preparing for the hunt that he completely forgot Bruce who probably was wondering where Nico was and the fact that he still was dressed in a suit. He only remeberes what he was wearing when Thalia asked shim why he was dressed like that.  
He asked if they had any other clothes they could give him, and Thalia gave him some of her old clothes, since she was one of the few hunters who wore boyish clothes. When it was time to go, Nico was wearing a ripped black almost skinny jeans, a long sleeve nirvana shirt and the silver jacket a lot of Artemis' Hunters wore, since Thalia only had her leather jacket as other Jacket and she was wearing that herself. Now that every hunter who would join Artemis was ready, she talked about strategy. 

"Okay we need to be careful, the Chimaera can burn almost everything around her. The one time it actually was defeated it was defeated from the top, so Thalia, can you do that?" 

Thalia looked a bit pale but then nodded.  
"Good. Nico, Heather, Clemintine, and Maria you will distract the Chimaera with your powers, Katharia and Jessica will build a trap and Jessica you will support the trap with your powers. Once the monster stopped spitting fire we will join the distract team. Got it?"

Artemis's speech was followed by a collective yes, wich only Nico didn't join in, and the hunters went towards a very big tent. That tent basically was a staple for their horses, wich for some reason already had a saddle on their backs. Nico wasn't very fond of the Idea that he would use Poseidon's creation for travel, but he didn't protest. 

☽︎☀︎︎☾︎

The hunters' expert on trails and traces went a head, together with Artemis, the rest didn't have a strict formation, so Nico ended up between Thalia and Reyna.

"So how exactly did you two get together?"

"You know how Apollo was a teenager for a while?", Reyna asked.

"Yea."

"So he shows up at Camp Jupiter with Jason's corpse and tells he needs our help beacuse we're going to be attacked by Nero, Commodus and Caligula and their fleet of 50 boats. It's kind of a long story, but when we where doing quest thing Apollo said he could be the cure to my curse-", she giggled thinking of the moment, "-I realised I didn't need some man to lift my curse. I realisedthat maybe I had stronger feeling for Thalia than I wanted to admit."

"After joining us it took her 15 years to ask me out.", Thalia said. Reyna hit her with the back side of her spear, then she giggled.

"It was 12 years, okay?" 

Thalia laughted, said "Yea, right.", and was about to say something, when they saw the Chimaera right in front of them.

Nico got off his horse, ate another crumb of ambrosia Thaila gave him, then got ready to summon a few undead warriors in order to distract the Chimaera. 

☽︎☀︎︎☾︎

Nightwing was in M'gann's ship, together with the rest of the core young Justice team that where still alive. They where traking down what they believed was a gang with ties to the light who went hunting illegally sometimes. Oddly enough the tracker Bruce planted on Nico a couple of days after he came to live in the mannor either was malfunctioning or Nico was with this gang.

"Honestly, I think there is something with the tracker you guys put on him.", Tigress said through the mind link.

"Just think about it: more than half the trackers we put on them have malfunctioned."

"Either that or they are really good at tracker spotting.", Connor thought.

"We're going to be there in 15 Minutes.", M'gann announced. 

☽︎☀︎︎☾︎

Nico noticed how he didn't feel as weak as he should after raising a lot of warriors and fealt a familiar feeling. Reyna was giving them strength and he was glad about that. The distraction worked and the Chimaera was very busy with burning down and eating undead warriors, and a moving plan thing that was created by Maria and Heather, two Demigods apparently. Another one, Clementine, was running at a speed that was fast even for Demigods and thus being able to escape from the fire of the Chimaera. So far, they where pretty good at luring the monster in the right direction, and everything looked fine. All they had to do after all was move the plants, the worrioirs or themselves in the direction if the trap and the Chimaera would follow. Nico was in a hiding spot together with Maria and Heather, who created that hiding spot and where able to move it if needed. 

But, you probably already guessed it, nothing is allowed to go right in the life of a Demigod, and in a very short time a lot of things went very bad.

The Chimaera got very close to the fast girl, who barely managed to escape and then decided to eat a few undead people as a snack instead. Unfortunately, the Chimaera still was hungry and went for the girl again, who this time didn't notice in time and got snatched. Lucky for her the monster only got her arm, and she reacted faster than Nico thought was possible and pulled a dagger. She stabbed herself right underneath her arm, screamed and then pulled the knife through her arm, effectively almost cutting it off. And arrow shot through the bit of flesh that was left over and the girl feel for about 5 meters. She landed a bit out of balance, but she didn't look like she had done more damage to her body. The plant thing saved her from being snatched again and transported her to the hiding spot Nico and the other two girls where hiding in. One of them immediately ripped her shirt apart and made a pressure bandage. Nico saw the blood running out of her arm and fealt the soul also getting ready to leave her body. The girl who made the bandage, Nico was sure her name was Maria, then looked at Nico, who was about to find another hiding spot, fear being the only emotion in her eyes.

"You can teleport, right?"

"No, I can shadow travel, there is a differen-"

"I don't care! Just bring her back to our Camp!"

A shutter went through Nico as he realised the hunters would now also hate him.  
"I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?", she said, her voice slowly geting hysterical as she was holding Clemintine, who was slipping into unconsciousness.

"I mean that if I shadowtravel with her she will very likely die!", she screamed and took a deep breath to calm himself down. No need for his underworld powers to drain Clementine's powers even more. "I get my power from the same place my Dad gets his powers, the underworld. You know the place where DEAD PEOPLE go when they died. While I am sure I can transport her body with shadowtravel, I don't think her soul would make it."

Maria hadn't calmed herself down, but she looked like she understood. She looked at the third girl, who looked like she was the youngest of them all, Heather.

"I will bring her to Lady Artemis. You two continue distracting.", Heather ordered and left.

They where doing a pretty solid job considering their powers had just been cut in half. Things where going according to plan, the Chimaera has been caught in the trap and the rest of the hunters joined in on "fighting the monsters. Artemis and another Girl where missing, but Heather was there again. Thalia was supposed to fly over the Chimaera any time soon now, but Thalia didn't look ready in the slightest way. In fact, Nico saw her puking in the corner of his eye just before the Chimaera went into the trap. So while the hunters where busy fighting the monster, Nico was looking for Thalia.

The battle had been going on for about 3 minutes when Nico finally found Thalia and Reyna. "Thalia, are you up to it?"

She looked incedebly pale and shook her head, as if she was going to puke again as soon as she opened her mouth.

"Well Fuck. Also get well soon.", Nico said and was about to go back to the hunters, it then turned around again.

"Can I borrow your Spear?", he asked to wich she nodded. He thanked her and then actually went back to hunters.

He was pretty sure there where no other children of Zeus among them, or anybody else who was able to fly, except maybe Artemis, but she very likely was busy with taking care of Clementine. He never purpusly shadowtraveled into air before, but he knew he had done it. So, at least as for as Nico knew, he was their best shot at taking down the Chimaera. 

He took a deep breath and prepared himself for was he was about to do. He stepped into the shadows, heared the grass move behind him and as he was being consumed by the shadows, he heared Thalia say "Nico, we are being-" then he fully disappeared into the shadows. 

☽︎☀︎︎☾︎

The team had parked the Bioship about 200 meters away from where they suspected the fighting and now where splitting up in order to surround the dangerous gang they thought they where taking down.

Nightwing got into his position before everyone else because he had to move the least. One of the many benefits that come with leading a team. He saw something he was sure was real, and he couldn't ask his teammates because they wherent on their positions yet.

He saw a child appear out of nowhere several meters above a very big animal. That child threw something that looked like a long stick at the animal and the animal strand down until it was.. "the size of a Jaket?", he asked out loud, then immediately blushed because he said that out loud.

"Nightwing, why are you thinking about a jacket?" Conner asked.

"I'll show you later. For now we have to focus on brining these people in."

The child then picked up the jacket and tried to give it to someone else, who took it on then immediately put it on him.

Although invested in the Jaket dilemma, as soon as he got the clear from everyone, he ordered the attack.

Nightwing jumped down from a tree and landed in the middle of the hunters. He looked around and immedtalty realised a few things. 

These are all girls.   
These girls mostly are younger than Tim.   
These girls looked like they where able and about to kill him.  
Nico was with them.

Nightwing's look lasted on Nico. Superboy now also jumped down from a tree, together with three other heroes, and now the hunters where surrounded.

"You are all under arrest, for the illegal hunting of while animals.", Nightwing announced, allthough it fealt werid saying this to a bunch of Middle- and Highschoolers.  
The hunters looked like they where ready to attack and all glanced at a teenager in a leather jacket and a tiara. A stance fashion statement, but Nightwing and though weirder phases. The teenager looked like she was about to give her okay, when someone spoke up.

"Lieutenant Grace, we are terribly sorry." Nico turned around and the person who spoke looked kind of familiar. Aqualad was his superhero name he was sure of that.

"We had mistaken you as threat to the peace in our society, that is why we intervened. We are terribly sorry.", Aqualad said and keeled. He made a hand gesture and looked like he was saying something, but he wasn't.

"Of course! Artemis' hunters.", Nightwing said and also keeled. Every hero who was there apologised for stopping the hunt, but they didn't look like they where going any time soon.

"I have one question, Lieutenant Grace. Since when do you ally yourself with men?", Tigress asked and pointed at Nico.

Thalia, who was equipped with a bow and arrow, didn't look like she was going to disarm anytime soon. She came up with an explanation in no time, an explanation she thought was acceptable and not too far away from the truth.

"He was in need of healing when we found him. He offered his help in order to repay us and after he was strong enough we accepted. He was supposed to go back to his home after this."

"So may we escod him to his home? You don't have to wait your time on it and we can hand him over to the authorities, since there is a missing report for him. Unless of course he hadnt repayed you properly."

Everyone now was looking at Nico, who was slightly uncomfortable in his new fur coat, and then back at Thalia.

"He did repay us.", she said.

Nico looked at Nightwing. "If there is a missing report for me, how long have I been missing?"

"About three days."

A shutter went through Nico and his expression changed.

"Three days? Bruce is going to kill me!" Nico fealt his heartbeat rise and the sweat on his hands. How was he supposed to explain all of this? Of course he would ask where he knew the hunters from, and why he was with them and how be got away from Gotham so fast. Nico only then rembered he didn't know where he even was, except that he knew he was in a forrest.

"I am sure Mister Wayne will in first line be happy to have you back." That didn't really calm him down, but nodded and went to Thalia and Reyna, to say them goodbye.

"This was fun.", he said awkwardly. Thalia looked at him like she wasn't sure of what to do with him, then she gave him a big hug.  
"If anything is wrong you can always come to us.", Reyna reminded him. "Also thanks for killing the Chimaera." She kissed him on the forehead, told him to call them sometimes, went though his hair and then let him go to Nightwing and the rest of the team. 

☽︎☀︎︎☾︎

Nightwing and the rest of the Young Justice team led the teenage Demigod to the Bioship but as soon as Nico as saw it, he started to Panik.

"What's wrong kiddo?"

Nico seemed to be bothered by him being called kiddo, but he don't say anything against it. He was way more worried about the possibility of flying.

"We're not going to fly, are we?"  
"Actally that was the plan."   
Nico's hand started to shake.  
"I can't. I am not going to fly. If I have the choice I would rather walk to Gotham than fly there."

Nightwing bend down a bit and looked his younger brother in the eyes.

"Don't worry, if you don't want to we won't." He looked at Miss Martian, who then turned the Bioship into a Camper.

"In case you want to sleep.", she explained. Nico was surprised and also fascinated. He had seen a lot of things transfigue, like Percy's or his sword, but never something of this size. He though of Leo and Annabeth who would either love it of go crazy because it didn't make any sense.

"Thanks.", he said and gave Miss M a thankful smile.

"No problem.", Miss Martian and Nightwing said at the same time. 

☽︎☀︎︎☾︎

The ride over to Gotham was a bit awkward, but Nico had been through worse. The team of heros tried to further convince Nico Bruce would very much not kill Nico on sight, and Nico calmed down a bit although he wasn't sure if Bruce would actually be nice to him. After all, Jason Todd did suffer a lot before he died and maybe Bruce had decided it was time Nico knew his actions came with consequences. At the end of their ride, Nightwing gave him a small box with a button in it.

"If you think Bruce Wayne is actually going to hurt you where you come home, you can press it. One of us will be there in 10 minutes and we'll be able to help." 

Nico nodded, feeling slightly saver. When he was dropped off by the police station the sun was already down and Nico actally feakt tired.


End file.
